Pure Feedback
by FishWolf2215
Summary: A fic that shows what happens to Yayaka after the events of the Flip Flappers anime (set directly after the anime/where the last fic left off. Mostly Yayaka POV) A sequel to my story 'Pure Voice'
1. Chapter 1

_Authors note: I'd rather just have this story get started, but I wanna leave a fair warning to people clicking on this for the first time: this fic is sort of a sequel/'what happens next' to Flip Flappers, yes, but it's got a LOT of refrences to my previous fic 'Pure Voice' and is probably mostly a sequel to that, rather than the anime itself. __**I **__**STRONGLY**__** recommend reading 'Pure Voice' before moving on to this fic**__, as you will probably miss out number of refrences or callbacks to events of that story. You can try reading this as a standalone, but there'll probably be quite a few things that'd be out of context, or might not make too much sense without it, so although you can try it, I don't think it'll be a good idea._

_That's up to you though. To new readers, welcome! To old readers, welcome back! To new people who click on this, read the warning, check out the original fic, and then come back to read this story, welcome, goodbye, and welcome back again! I hope you enjoy this sequel to 'Pure Voice' and therefore (in a way) sequel to Flip Flappers._

_This story continues pretty much from where Pure Voice left off._

* * *

I thought I could keep those thoughts at bay...

But no matter how hard I tried, they were always at the back of my mind..

_**((Switch with me...))**_

* * *

I don't know how long it was after Cocona and Papika fought Mimi in Pure Illusion. All I knew is, when I finally woke up, the sky was dark, I was lying in a field of white clovers, and I was surrounded.

_Get up! _

Instinct pushed me to my feet, maybe a little too quickly as I almost lost my balance. There was no need to worry though, despite having people all around me. They turned out to be friendly faces.

"Toto...? Yuyu?" I felt kinda groggy, and had to rub my eyes to try and get things to be less blurry. It worked a little, as the twin's faces became less fuzzy, and I could make out silver hair, red eyes, and… is that a scar on Toto's head? I was about to ask about that, when I noticed there was another person with them, a smaller kid with strange orange-brown-yellow eyes. I felt like I should have known their name too, but it wasn't coming to me, in fact, the only identification I could think to give them was, "…third kid?"

"No! I said before, I'm Nyunyu!" they responded. _That's right… _"And nyu're sixth kid!"

_Sixth kid? _

I wanted to ask her what she meant by that, but I had a more important question on my mind.

"Where the hell are we?" The white clovers suggested Pure Illusion, or at least somewhere Mimi has been before, but the sky… No, it wasn't the sky…

"Real world. Asclepius building" Toto answered. _Wait, we're back at base?_ I had another look around, but all I could see was white clovers littered thickly all over every surface. Hardly any stone or concrete was showing (it also explained why the sky was black: the ceiling of the building). Eventually my eyes fell on something I recognised. Well, something I _would _have recognised. When it stood, it looked like a Y shaped stick, with wings coming off the edges at the top, and there was a red glow which made me feel like I was being watched by a giant eye… But now, the red 'eye' was gone, and much like the rest of the place, it was covered in white clovers. It only stood out to me because there was a hole in the roof, casting a circle of daylight over the plinth where the structure once proudly stood.

But beyond that, pretty much everything else here was just… gone. Destroyed. I walked over to one of extremely few things still standing: a lone computer terminal, and brushed a hand along the side of it, which much like the rest of the place, had patches of white clovers all over. The screen was on, which suggested the computer was used pretty recently, although by the amorphous kids, or an Asclepius member, I don't know.

"What happened here?" I asked the twins. Whatever happened in Pure Illusion, not much time could have passed in the real world. I felt like the computer should have been completely rusted over or something, with the sheer amount of plant life in the building. Hell, just _seeing _the plants here was pretty weird, no one at Asclepius had one, not even a single flower just sitting on a desk.

"Mimi attacked," Yuyu answered.

_Mimi did this…? _What Yuyu said made sense, I mean, I've seen some of Mimi's power beforehand (Or the darker side of Mimi at least. I called her Yamimi in my head to help separate the two)… but this… I had an idea of what she could do, and that she could probably influence the real world just as much as Pure Illusion, it's why the head priest of Asclepius wanted to try and find all the amorphous after all-

"Asclepius is dead." Toto added, interrupting my thoughts.

"Dead?" I asked, turning back to face him. I mean, looking around me, that should have been pretty evident. I couldn't see a single living person here beyond the four of us… "How are you guys alive?" I asked.

"Arrived after Mimi's attack," Toto answered. My eyes fell on his scar again. _I remember now… he and Yuyu came here to fix Toto's head wound. It looked like it worked at least._

"I'm glad to see you're both safe" I said, with a little smile. Toto's mouth twitched, in an attempt to copy me, and Yuyu continued to just stare at me. _Wait a second, that's a good point. _I turned my attention to Nyunyu.

"What are you doing here, Nyunyu? I thought you stayed with the others at Flip Flap Zero…"

"Nyunyu came here with Flip Flap to investigate! Salt wanted to find something here, so we all came! They all went back, then I found Toto Onii-sama and Yuyu Onee-chan and then we found nyu!" She replied. Once again, I couldn't help but be a little puzzled by Nyunyu's… energy. She was definitely livelier than Toto and Yuyu, but why did Asclepius make her like that? Well, even if I wanted to ask someone about that (although I doubt they've have answered me anyway), there was no one _to _ask any more. I looked around at the white clovers again and shuddered. _Some of those used to be people..._

"Do you know how I got here?" I asked.

"Hole. Fell from above," Toto answered. He walked up to the computer terminal and began typing rapidly on the keyboard. Streams of information flashed along his eyepiece, but I noticed, it seemed to be going at a much slower rate than it used to. Toto was made to process lots of information quickly, much faster than any regular human was capable of, but there was definitely a difference in the pace he seemed to be able to register it all compared to before. _Must be because of that head injury… _Yuyu and Nyunyu didn't seem to be hurt at all. I guess at least, regardless of what happened here, they didn't get injured after coming here. Although, now I look at it Yuyu's giant metal arm seemed a bit dented, but fine beyond that.

"What're you guys doing here now?" I asked. It was clear that Toto was all healed up, and no one from Asclepius was around… A thought hit me then, which made me a little sad. _If they were just made to come back here after Pure Illusion, no matter that happened… _I mean, the twins didn't need to eat or drink, but still, if they came back here after everything and found it like this… _Where could they go now? _Asclepius and Pure Illusion were all they knew. I mean, they could still go to their school I guess, but what about after school? Would they just come back and sit here all alone?

Another thought hit me then: Asclepius was… well, I'd be hesitant to call it 'home', but like Toto and Yuyu, beyond school and Cocona all I had was… here.

There was nowhere for us to go…

Toto's eyepiece beeped. "Data recovered. Deleted on source console," he announced. The screen he was working on had now turned blank. He stood away, as Yuyu approached the computer, gauntlet raised, before she crushed it with a single punch.

_I guess they were also made to destroy every scrap if information of Pure Illusion if something happened to the rest of Asclepius… They didn't want anyone else to get there after all._

"Current mission: destroy remaining evidence," Toto said, finally answering my question. _Well, that confirms that_…

_Wait, what about the stuff in my room? Have they already been there?_

"I'll be right back," I told them, before rushing off.

My room looked exactly how I remember it looking last time I left it (including lack of white clovers, my room was completely untouched)… was it really only a few days ago I was last here? _Fighting Yamimi, Flip Flap's base, white expanse, Pop's World, the alternate Pure Illusion… _Yeah, at least four or five days… Wow… So much has happened in all that time…

My room was pretty bare, there was hardly anything of note in here at all, a bed, and a shelf containing a few books, my metal leaf from a previous Pure Illusion I went into, and a brown and blue disc of highly polished rock, the size of a music record (another souvenir of another world in Pure Illusion. I picked it up in the first place, thinking it was an amorphous. It wasn't but I kept it because it reminded me of Cocona, my only friend at the time). Looking at all the swirls of colour, tracing my fingers around where they mixed together, I remembered my time in the alternate Pure Illusion, where I was seperated from Toto and Yuyu, and all I had for company were a variety of different Coconas. That was the time when I realised just what exactly Asclepius were planning: to find a way to harness Mimi's power and take over the world, potentially destroying everything in the process. I ran away to Pure Illusion then, intending to stay there forever if I had to, but the longer I stayed, the more I thought about how Asclepius would just find another way to get to Pure Illusion, drag some other poor kid into all of this, or if not that, then they'd go after Cocona and take her. I returned to the real world, because the only way to save the world from Asclepius was for Cocona and Papika to find all the amorphous. If I stayed with Asclepius, I could slow them down or sabotage them from the inside, they wouldn't go after Flip Flap (and therefore Cocona) directly if they still had someone who could go to Pure Illusion, and I could try and help keep Cocona safe...

But yeah, that place wasn't a bad world. Everything echoed like hell there, and there was phantom birdsong if you stood on certain patches of floor, but it was pretty harmless otherwise.

_I guess the four of us could just go live in Pure Illusion if we had to... It's not like we have anywhere else to go._ I took the Cocona rock from the shelf, and put it on my bed, along with the metal leaf (the colours of which shifted between silver and gold depending on the lighting).

I mean, I don't think the twins would actually come in here and smash these things too, but they were some of the very few objects I actually _owned_. There as also a jacket I had, which was sitting on my bed, which I admit I was kinda surprised to see. I reached a hand into one of the pockets on my weapon belt at that point, and pulled out an exact replica of the one I could see in front of me. In doing so, something else tumbled out of the pocket and rolled along the floor: a blue gemstone.

No, not a gemstone. _An amorphous. _I kinda forgot I still had it on me, I put it into one of my weapon belt pockets at some point during the battle with Yamimi. I had no idea if it still had any power to it, whether Yamimi taking it away was permanent, or if regular Mimi had given it back somehow... Either way, I picked it up. There was no green light as I touched it and put it back in my pocket, along with the copy of my jacket, which made me think Yamimi taking the amorphous power away might still be the case.

_I'll figure all that out later. _There was another reason I came in here after all…

Much like my copy of the jacket, there was a copy of something else I had on me: in the pockets of my weapons belt was a silver chain, the remains of a necklace given to me by Cocona not long after we initially became friends. She heard I'd gotten hurt, and gave me the necklace, which looked like it had a tiny orange dragon egg on the end of it, saying the egg would hatch and the dragon would protect me… But yeah, the copy of the chain was in a pocket on my belt, and the real one was tucked away in the pages of one of my books…

I opened it up to the page, and slowly pulled out the silver chain, which attempted to dribble through my fingers.

And then I came to the end of it.

And the 'dragon egg' was cut in half.

* * *

It was probably a bit dumb of me to take the metal leaf and the Cocona rock out of my room, as they were heavy and a little cumbersome to be carrying around in my arms, but I wanted to stop Toto and Yuyu from destroying them (I was also wearing the dragon egg necklace around my neck). I was making my way back to the place where I'd left the three of them, when as I was walking through the corridors, I found myself stopping outside a door. It took me a second to realise why exactly. It was identical to all the other doors in the building. There were no signs or labels anywhere to be seen...

I nudged the door with my shoulder, thankfully it was unlocked, and had a look inside. It was just as bright as I remember when I saw it in the alternate world Pure Illusion, and I had to squint my eyes to try and cut out some of the sheer... whiteness of it. It was a little easier to look at than it was before, as some of Yamimi's white clovers had made their way in here too, but beyond that, it was still pretty bright in here. The patches of white clovers helped me get an idea of how big the room was, compared to the last time I was here, and it was definitely big. A fragton bigger than it needed to be, when you consider the only two things in here were a double bass and a piano.

I've not actually seen this room in the real world before, I only learnt of its existance in the world identical to this one in Pure Illusion, but from what little I knew of the twins, I wonder how they'd feel when they came across here. Yuyu (or at least a Yuyu in another world) seemed... fond, I guess, of this room. _Would the real Yuyu be able to destroy this place if she had to? _She liked music and wanted to be able to play the piano with her brother one day. If she had to, could she destroy something that she loved?

_I should get going. _I walked away from the room and made my way back to the room where I woke up. Yuyu was the only one here. She watched as I approached, and her eyes went to the two large objects I was hugging to myself, before her eyes flicked back up to me. Her head tilted to the side, like a curious dog.

"You can destroy everything else in the building, but I'm keeping these," I said, answering her silent question. She nodded, before turning to look at an empty doorway. It was a little odd to be back in the presence of the amorphous kids, after being around Cocona and Papika for the past couple of days or so. I mean, I was used to the twins, I've known them for years after all, and I saw them pretty much every day, but... there was something missing, being back next to them. I'd started to learn a little bit about them in our most recent adventures in Pure Illusion, and I'd just about started to consider them friends, but... I spent so much less time with Papika, and I felt a _lot _closer to her, than I did to either of the twins, despite all the time we've spent together, working for Asclepius.

_Maybe that was something I should change..._

"Toto and Nyunyu through there?" I asked her.

"Portal room" Yuyu answered.

That sent a shock of alarm through me. I cursed, before rushing off as fast as I could, leaving Yuyu behind me. _If they take that out, we won't have anywhere to go._

Despite the fact I'd just told Yuyu I wanted to keep my Cocona rock and the metal leaf, I dumped them on the floor, knowing they'd only weight me down. Even though I was blessed with agility and was pretty light on my feet, as quickly as I was running, I felt like I was being far too slow, as if instead of running through a corridor with no resistance at all, that I was trying to wade through a tar pit.

I found myself at the entrance, panting heavilly, hand on the door frame, and barely managed to yell "Hold it!" between heavy breaths. My feet hurt from them pounding the floor so hard in trying to get here, and I was pretty sure I was getting a headache or something, from lack of oxygen in my system from overexcerting myself. My bangs were in front of my face, blocking my vision, and in my current state (being doubled over and tired out), it was kinda difficult to raise my head to see what was going on.

Toto, who was midway through typing on another computer terminal stopped, his eyes facing me, but his head turned towards the screen. His fingers were frozen in the air, as if he were a statue with his hands were carved to be that way, as they hovered over the keys. Nyunyu was watching him, eager and curious, before she turned to me. Where Toto and Yuyu's gaze made them look like they were almost always half-asleep, Nyunyu's eyes were constantly wide open, like an owl's. _Man, that stare is really gonna take some getting used to... _Much like the rest of the Asclepius building, the place was covered with white clovers. Apparently though, the electronics in here were unaffected.

Seeing the both of them standing so still after I gave them the command to stop, I kinda wondered if I left the room, if they'd still be standing like that, even if I never came back. You know, a part of me wouldn't be surprised if that was the case, but I'm not gonna do that.

Either way, when I eventually recovered, I asked them, "What're you doing?" I mean, I was pretty sure I knew exactly what they were doing, but still, the amorphous kids seldom spoke of their own accord unless they were asked a quesion. Normally this was the only way to get a response out of them.

"Destroying evidence," Toto answered. I was expecting him to continue tapping away on the computer keys, but he didn't move an inch. Whether that was because I gave an order, or because he could sense something urgent about me, I didn't know.

"I'm helping!" Nyunyu piped up. She sounded... monotone, but also energetic. A little loud. I'm not really sure if I can explain it just right, but those are the words I can think were best to describe it. "What are _nyu_ doing?" She asked right back.

"Stopping you," I said, "if Asclepius is gone, and you're destroying everything that remains, then where are we gonna go?" I paused, waiting for an answer "Where are we gonna live, Toto?"

I wasn't expecting a response from him at all, I was just expecting silence, so when I heard him say, "Accounted for"... well, if I was sitting, I would have fallen right out of my chair.

Instead I just raised my eyebrows, "You have a plan?" I asked, and he responded with a nod. _He's thought about this? _I don't know why it surprised me so much. Toto was the one on the team who took all things into consideration and made almost-instant descisions, but I guess it was the fact that he'd thought about a _non-combat situation_ like this... Even with his processing speed though, I couldn't help wondering, did he work out what to do the instant Asclepius was taken out? ...Or has he been thinking about this for a lot longer than that?

"Can we blow it up now?" Nyunyu asked eagerly. Toto's eyes went between her and me, and like Yuyu earlier, tilted his head slightly to the side in question. His fingers still hadn't moved in all the time we spoke, his hands didn't shake at all, despite having been in the air for so long.

"Not yet. We might still need this place. If Toto's plan doesn't work, we need a backup," I said, trying to sound convincing. I probably didn't need to put the effort into trying to persuade them, as Toto and Nyunyu seemed pretty happy to follow my orders in the past before, but still.

Thankfully, Toto nodded, accepting my answer. Nyunyu was watching his response, before she nodded as well. I'd already worked out that Toto seemed to trust me, and going by his reaction here, nothing had changed with that, but Nyunyu waiting to see how Toto acted... _She seems to trust him quite a lot too. How long has Nyunyu been around? Is her trust in Toto something that was programmed in by Asclepius? Or is that just a thing of hers?_

Well, she did call him 'onii-sama' earlier, so that showed she must view him pretty highly at least... I couldn't help but be curious, if Toto was 'onii-sama' and Yuyu 'onee-chan'... _What was I to Nyunyu?_

_Think about that later, Yayaka, you have something more important to be worrying about. _"Okay, Toto, what's this plan you have?"

* * *

Toto told me to wait outside the Asclepius building while he and Nyunyu finished wiping the hard drives of every remaining computer in the base, and then we'd carry out his plan. He didn't give my any details beyond that, which was odd, but if Toto could trust me with my descisions and commands, I figured I could try and trust him with this.

I figured it'd be a good idea to tell Yuyu what was going on, in case Toto hadn't told her. As I made my way back to the big room I found her in, we ended up running into each other in the corridor. I guess she didn't like waiting around on her own and had decided to follow me, or go see the others.

Actually, now I think about it, she was probably heading there to smash the portal now I'd given Toto and Nyunyu enough time to do what they were doing.

Either way, I was kinda surprised to run into her, especially when I saw her holding my Cocona rock and the metal leaf, both of them clutched in her gauntlet's fist. Upon seeing me, she held them out for me to take. "Found abandoned. Said you wanted to keep," she explained.

Even though she said why she took them with her, I was surprised to see her holding them, or at least taking them back to me. It was a simple gesture, one that probably any other person would have done in the situation really, but the fact it was coming from an artificial human made by Asclepius, probably one of the coldest organisations in existence, I couldn't help but feel a little touched, and smiled as I took the items from her hand.

_She thought about me._

"Thanks, Yuyu," I said, gratefully. It was probably the most emotion I've ever really had in my voice when talking to Yuyu, beyond an angry command, or a shout of warning, and I think that showed on Yuyu's face. Her eyes were already open, but I swear they widened just a fraction, as if she was taken aback by someone speaking to her like that. She gave me a nod of confirmation, which seemed a little stilted, and then walked past me. I almost kept walking myself, and then I remembered that I was going to tell Yuyu where I was going.

I called out to her that I'd be waiting outside for the three of them, and she raised her gauntlet in a slight wave to show she'd heard me, before I left the building.

* * *

I sat with my back against a tree outside the base, with the disc of Cocona rock and metal leaf in my lap. Maybe an hour or two has passed, going by how much the sun moved across the sky. It was approaching evening, and light was turning everything a warm yellow. From the outside, the Asclepius building looked more like it resembled ancient jungle ruins after Yamimi's attack, rather than a high-tech research facility. _It's probably better off that way. Just let it crumble on its own. _

I wasn't really sure I had any feelings towards the base, and the fact everything and everyone in it was probably gone. I briefly wondered about the school nurse, as she was a part of Asclepius too, but she was probably called back to base when the attack on Flip Flap begun, and if so, then she was likely killed when Yamimi attacked. Although I didn't really care about most other people in Asclepius being dead, a part of me hoped the school nurse was an android, so at least they wouldn't have felt pain. She wasn't quite as bad as the others, and she let me hang out with Cocona in her room when we didn't have classes, it was one of few places I could be together with Cocona with no one else around...

_**((Switch with me.))**_

Those words came echoing back to me, from being tucked away in a deep corner my mind. I remembered my encounter with the red-eyed Yayaka I saw in the mirror (I need to come up with a name for her...) and the offer I was given: to have her take my place so Cocona would be mine. I guess I should be thankful I woke up when I did, because I felt if I stayed there any longer, that I would have said 'yes'... And I know I shouldn't do that.

But as much as I knew that... a part of me still wanted take the offer. It would be wrong to break up Cocona, when she's fallen in love with Papika, and they seemed so happy together... I can't help how I feel though. I'm in love with Cocona too, and I want nothing more than for her to be happy...

_But I wanted her to be with me... _

_...Does she forgive me for lying to her all the time I worked for Asclepius?_

I sighed, before I turned my attention back to the real world, instead of getting lost in my thoughts. The amorphous kids had left the building and were all heading towards me, their hair looking like strands of fire as they caught the sun. They looked a bit like they could have been ghosts, burning up in the daylight.

Although one of them, Nyunyu, kinda broke that illusion as had something, small, fat, and green wobbling on her head as she walked. I squinted, trying to work out what the hell it was, until it was close enough for me to recognise: Uexkull, Cocona's pet rabbit.

_That's right, I went through the Hole from Pure Illusion with him... _I felt a bit bad for forgetting he even existed. _We need to return him to Cocona at some point..._

The twins were wearing their school uniforms, as was Nyunyu, and all of them had backpacks, which I guess held all their combat equipment and maybe anything else they wanted to take with them. Yuyu's arm was in a cast, like it normally was whenever she wasn't in Asclepius' base/Pure Illusion, so her backpack was only slung over one shoulder...

_Wait, that's not her usual backpack... _It was metal and slightly battered... _That's her gauntlet. Huh... it can do that? _I guess it made sense, I had no idea how the heck else we were gonna get across town without turning a few heads if her arm was in plain sight... _But since when could it do that? _Now I think about it, it might well have been another feature, much like her being able to shoot bullets at short range, that she and Toto could have added when we had to fix our equipment at the yuri-hell-school. _Or it's just always been able to do that, and I've never seen it happen._

Seeing them in their school uniforms, it just occured to me, I should probably be wearing mine too. Damn, I didn't even think to grab it before I left... I had my jacket though (or rather a copy of it that came from another world) tucked away in a pocket on my weapon belt. I took it out, to put it on, to disguise myself somewhat (or at least I'd probably get some unwanted attention if I was walking around in my combat gear), and as I did so, Toto had opened up his bag and pulled out a neatly folded blue skirt, white shirt, and sailor scarf. _He packed my uniform? _I was pretty confused for a second, but I guess it'd be better to just accept it, so I put the skirt on over the top of my combat gear, along with the shirt and sailor scarf, and tied my jacket around my waist, to cover my rocket belt. I could still access it if necessary, which was pretty nice, and I looked just like any other regular kid.

"Prepared?" Toto asked. It was weird that he was the one asking for once, normally I'd be the one to check that sort of thing, but since this was all Toto's plan and he was meant to be the one leading us, it made sense. Even though I could feel the weight of the Cocona rock and my metal leaf in my hands, I felt the need to look back down at them to check they were still there. Light caught the dragon egg necklace around my neck too, confirming it was still around, before I turned to Toto and nodded.

As we walked through town, I got a few strange looks from the people around me, as I clutched my things to my chest, and a few people glanced at Nyunyu as she walked around, with Uexkull balancing on her head, chewing at her silver-blue hair. I wondered if it bothered her at all, that he was just sitting there, merrily giving the kid a haircut. Maybe she couldn't even feel it.

The sun had pretty much gone down by the time Toto had guided us to a tall building. I wondered for a moment if it was a hotel, and he wanted us to live and stay here for the rest of our lives if it was. _We don't have any money Toto, or I certainly don't at least... _I went through the doors expecting a reception, some water fountains inside the entrance, maybe a couple of staff members or servants waiting at doorways...

Nope. It looked kinda like an office in here, which just confused me more. Well, an office, then corridors, and beyond every door, more offices. Computers on desks, and people in suits, packing up and going home for the night. _Are we just gonna stay in here while everyone else goes home? _I know the twins probably weren't too aware of how things in the real world worked (okay, I was kinda fuzzy on those details myself), but still, this wasn't really a good idea.

"Toto, are you sure about this?" I asked him, watching as someone else left a room nearby. The building was almost entirely empty now, just a few stragglers. Nyunyu started humming as we walked, which started Uexkull a bit, but he soon settled back down in Nyunyu's hair. _Can we even trust a rabbit to be in here? He'd just chew through all the wires... _

Eventually we came to a corridor that ended with a couple of elevators. The four of us waited, as the left one emptied, and the amorphous kids all walked inside. None of the people in business suits gave them a second glance as they entered. _Have they been here before? Or do they see weird stuff all the time here? Seriously, can no one see the damn rabbit?_

It took me a second to follow the three of them in there, I was feeling kinda uncomfortable doing all of this. I was with people I barely knew, being taken on some magical mystery tour on the inside of an unfamiliar office building...

I caught Yuyu's eye, and thought back to when she told Cocona the truth about our friendship being a lie, before I could, and I found myself hesitating further at the entrance to the elevator. I was trying not to think about the sadistic smile on her face as she tried to screw up the only friendship I had. Even though she picked up my stuff for me earlier, I was finding it hard to trust her right now. _What if they were just taking me to some secret hidden Asclepius base? Do they even have a backup? ...No, why would they? They'd want the amorphous all in one place, why split up like that?_

I don't know it Toto had picked up on what I was feeling, or if he was just waiting for me to join the rest of them in the elevator, but he looked at me and cocked his head in question.

_Toto knows what he's doing. If he can trust me, I can trust him._

I took a deep breath, gathering my courage, before joining them. Nyunyu watched with her big owl eyes as I did so, and Toto turned his attention to the buttons on the inside of the elevator car, pressing a number of them in sequence, before pressing three of them all at once.

I flinched and looked around wildly as the elevator rumbled to life, half expecting a trap of some sort to be activated. Nothing happened though, and the twins didn't suddenly all jump me either. It was a little cramped in here, more than I would have liked, and I started to feel a little panicked.

The only other noises I could hear apart from the elevator was Nyunyu still humming a tune to herself, and the loud beating of my own heart, trying to calm down. Yuyu's head twitched in my direction. _Can she hear it? _

"Do you know where we're going, Yuyu?" I asked, trying to keep my voice even. Her eyes met my own, and much like before, she gave me a slightly stilted nod, before quickly looking away from me.

_Is she hiding something?_

There was suddenly a loud 'Ding!' and the elevator doors slid open. Blue light from many electronic screens bathed the room ahead in light.

"What the heck is this place...?" I mumbled to myself, as I followed the three amorphous kids out the elevator. No hesitation here, I just wanted to be out of that tiny space. I almost got burnt alive in a cage in Pure Illusion once, and although I was pretty sure that place wouldn't go up in flames, I really didn't want to find out if that'd be the case.

The room was long and thin, and there were thick cables snaking across various boxy surfaces. Piles of cardboard boxes, filled with various metalic junk were strewn all over the area. A couple of screws spilled loose from one of them, landing near my feet, and I hopped backwards. I was pretty thankful it was just me, Toto, Yuyu and Nyunyu around, if there was anyone else, they would have wondered why the hell I was so jumpy. _Man, working for Asclepius and going to Pure Illusion has really messed me up..._

A loud 'CLANG!' echoed through the room now, making my head twitch around in that direction, swiftly followed by a very loud voice "They've messed everything up! This will take FOREVER to rebuild!"

_Wait a second, I know that voice..._

We turned a corner then, and saw a woman with shoulder length brown hair, pressed against the back of her neck by a pair of red and white headphones... _Wait, I know this person too..._

"Sayuri?"

I wasn't sure if she'd hear me, as she looked pretty absorbed in her work, but sure enough, they turned around to face us all, after hearing her name.

For some dumb reason, it took me a while to realise what this meant.

_They've taken me to Flip Flap._

* * *

_Authors note: After having written a couple of chapters of this and coming back here, I feel I should say now, this story... probably goes in a different direction that you'd expect it to, or at least it'll probably feel more like a written story/book rather than episodes of anime. Well, even though my last fic was based on the anime/used it to write scenes, I have no idea if it came across that way, but yeah. This one might be kinda different._

_Also, more importantly, I'll warn you now, that my update schedule for this story will probably be a lot less reliable than my 1 chapter a week format of my last fic, as my motivation for a number of things lately has been... scattered at best. I have 3 and a half chapters of this story written already, but progress is slow (I'm not kidding when I say my document that makes up my sequel story is half notes. Ok, some of them probably just repeat themselves, and some of those parts are scraps I've written and have no use for yet, but still I have a LOT of plans and ideas and I don't think I've had quite this many before all relating to one thing, it's hard to keep track off). I'm hoping I can finish this story at some point, but it might take a while._


	2. Chapter 2

"Oh, you're all back!" Sayuri said, aiming a friendly smile at the amorphous kids. _Wait, since when did they know each other?_

"Found Yayaka" Toto said, just as Sayuri's eyes fell on me. I was expecting her smile to die on her lips when she saw a potential enemy, but if anything, it grew a little bigger.

"You're looking much better now, Yayaka," she said. I wondered for a moment what the hell she met, when I remembered: _I was in the medical room here for a while. Toto and Yuyu beat me up to make sure Cocona and Papika would take me to Flip Flap, where I'd be safe, as I would have been killed if I made it back to Asclepius without the amorphous..._ while I was thinking all of this, Sayuri was speaking to Toto again, "You should probably take her to Doctor Salt. He's the one who wanted to see her after all," before turning her attention back to the laptop in front of her.

The amorphous kids had already turned to leave, but I stayed behind a moment. Therre was something I still had to say. Nervousness crepy along my body and I could feel my face flush a little. "Uhhh... thanks for the flowers, Sayuri," I just about managed to mumble before I tagged along behind them. If Sayuri replied, I couldn't really hear her, there was a hum of machinery that grew louder the further we walked through Flip Flap's base. I didn't really want to hang around to find out either, being in this place made me feel awkward.

Despite that I couldn't help but notice how... different the atmosphere here was compared to Asclepius. Just Sayuri's little welcome alone was already a lot more warmth than I was used to. Although this place was still bathed in a cool colour, a computer screen blue, that alone gave this place a lot more life than the hospital-white of Asclepius. _Maybe they don't carry out human experimentation here... Heck, they probably don't do that at all. _I hadn't realised I was hunching over, until I found myself standing a little straighter, and my muscles loosened a little from the tense knots they'd managed to work themselves into. _Maybe this was a place I could find myself relaxing in..._

I had that thought before the chaotic clopping of wooden sandals began hitting the floor. The amorphous kids stopped as one, and Toto and Nyunyu both stuck their arms out, stopping me from walking any further until a very frantic Hidaka has passed by, carrying one of many cardboard boxes stuffed with robot parts to another place in the building. Uexkull peered around at the box of wires, and it looked like he was about to jump off Nyunyu's head to try and follow Hidaka, eager to chew them.

"Oh, no you don't!" I grabbed him from the air, just as he hopped from Nyunyu's head and held him in firmly, but gently, trying to bundle him together with my Cocona rock and metal leaf. He seemed dismayed for a second, before looking at the Cocona rock and sniffing it, curious. After a little while, he squished himself down into a green blob next to it, looking quite content. _He must like it… Well, of course he would. The colours are pretty similar to Cocona's hair and eyes._

Eventually, Toto lead us to Salt's office, and we all entered without knocking. I didn't know much about Salt, apart from the facts that he was leader of Flip Flap, and that he looked… heavy. The last time I saw him, he'd managed to get to Pure Illusion, alone (I still had no idea how) and that he said he had things to atone for. Needing to atone for something would explain why he looked like he was always weight down by something. He watched carefully as we approached, his sunglasses hiding his eyes from us.

"You sent these three here to get me. Why?" I just got straight to the point, and the words came out probably harsher than they needed to, but I was still finding it difficult to trust Salt after our last encounter. _Even though he knew Cocona was his daughter, he still had no problem sending her into Pure Illusion. Being Mimi's child might not have guaranteed that she'd make it there without burning up. He could have sent her to her death…_

"Because we could use someone like you at Flip Flap," he said, not bothered at all by my apparent hostility.

"What for?" _If he says experiments, I don't care if I'll be homeless, I'm out of here._

"You have experience in traversing Pure Illusion, and its many worlds."

At the start of the word 'experience' my hand went to my rocket belt, ready to let an attack loose, but thankfully, that word wasn't going in the direction I thought it was… Not that I had anything to fire anyway. Salt seemed to know that too, as he smirked upon my reaction. He pulled open a drawer on his desk, and pulled out…

"My rockets?" _So, Salt had them all this time… _That explains why I couldn't find them with the rest of my stuff. It also made me wonder… "I had a headset too, a visor. Did you take that?"

"Doctor Hidaka has that. He wanted to try something," Salt's voice sounded like it belonged to a bear. Rumbling, and slightly grouchy. There was a silence hanging in the air for a little while.

"So, what, we go to Hidaka now?" I asked, trying to break the awkward quiet.

"If you want to join our team, you should see him, yes," came Salt's reply.

"I did you a favour and saved Papika, can't you do me a favour now, and just sign me up?"

"Not a part of Flip Flap, no favours. Talk to Hidaka."

I waited a while again, waiting for more information, or more to be said, but apparently Salt was done talking. We all left the room.

* * *

"Well, that was dumb… We didn't need to go to Salt at all, we should have just gone straight to Hidaka" I'd began voicing my thoughts out loud, not long after we left Salt's office.

The amorphous kids had nothing to say about the subject, and showed no signs they were listening to me either. Well, I was fine with that, I just wanted to complain about it.

Did I really want to work for Flip Flap? I honestly wasn't too sure. I mean, Salt was right, I had plenty of experience in Pure Illusion, and I was one of few people who could go there. Flip Flap would probably need as many people to go there if they could, if they wanted to research the place, it only made sense. I wasn't sure how I felt about it. I mean, if I was here, I'd have a home and somewhere to go, and a purpose in life, and that alone was good, but at the same time eventually I'd probably run into Cocona and Papika here one day, and I wasn't sure I could handle that…

I caught sight of my reflection in one of the machines bathed in blue light as Toto lead us to Hidaka's workshop. I saw a red-eyed reflection looking back at me, with a smirk _**((Switch with me.)) **_I snarled at my reflection, and blinked, and found myself looking back into my own purple eyes.

You know, I never had any strong opinions about mirrors or reflective surfaces before, but if they all spontaneously blew up, or became dust or something, I wouldn't be complaining about it.

"Why the hell isn't this working?" Hidaka yelled, cursing whatever he was working on. It wasn't long until we found him, bent over a desk, which was coated with various things, such as tools, screwdrivers, nuts, bolts, plates of metal, circuit boards and—

"My visor!" I got closer to the desk, and was ready to swipe it, but Hidaka had noticed our presence before I could do anything about it, and he curled over it completely, hiding it from sight.

"Oh, no you don't! You're not getting your hands on _this!_" he looked me in the eyes, giving me a solid glare. I stared back. Hidaka clearly remembered me from the last time we met. Even though I saved him from being held at gunpoint by Nyunyu, and hadn't done anything to harm him since, he still didn't seem to trust me. Well, I guess that was kinda fair, given the history of who I worked for in the past, but still, Asclepius was never quite this... _enthusiastic _about distrusting me.

"Hidaka-san. Request access to object" Yuyu said.

"No way! I'm not letting you Asclepius kids anywhere near my precious equipment!" He reached out his arms, and pulled all the various pieces of scrap and junk towards him, trying to shield it all from us.

"Orders from Salt. Request: Yayaka join Flip Flap" Toto said, as if trying to help Yuyu convince him to give me my stuff back.

"Doctor Salt might have let you all join, but that doesn't mean I trust you guys yet!" Hidaka stubbornly refused.

'_Let you all join'? _Suddenly Nyunyu calling me 'sixth kid' earlier made sense. _They've all joined Flip Flap. _I should have made that connection earlier, when Toto knew the code to get into Flip Flap's base through the elevator, rather than leading us through the tunnel Asclepius dug into their base, if this is the place he planned to take us to. I mean, I didn't know where he was taking us at the time, but still, I should have figured it out when we met Sayuri at least. _Although I'm technically not 'sixth kid' yet..._

"Hidaka! Request trade!" Nyunyu said, raising a hand into the air, as if she was trying to get a teacher's attention at school.

"You guys have nothing I wan—" Hidaka turned to look at Nyunyu then, when his eyes caught sight of the Cocona rock and the metal leaf in my arms. He took his glasses off and leaned forwards, knocking a few screws to the floor, trying to get a better look. I pulled them closer to my chest, trying to keep them away from him. Uexkull, getting a little crushed, wriggled his way out of my grasp and settled down on Yuyu's head.

"Did those come from Pure Illusion?" Hidaka asked. He suddenly seemed a lot calmer than he was before. The change in his personality was pretty odd, but at least he wasn't yelling at us now, or trying to send us away.

"What if they did?" I asked, cautiously.

"I need to study them! Please, let me take them!"

"No way."

"Come on!"

"Nope"

"I'll trade you!"

That made me smirk. _Now we're getting somewhere. _I made a mental note to thank Nyunyu later for saying the thing that'd get his attention.

"Okay, Hidaka. You want some samples of things from Pure Illusion? Let me join, and I'll bring some back for you. In return, I want my visor back." I didn't tell him that the silver chain on my belt, or that I had a jacket in my pocket both of which came from Pure Illusion. Much like the rock and the leaf he was begging to study, those things were some of the very few posessions I could call my own, and I didn't want to give them away to some half-stranger. Even if I told Hidaka about them, he may well have dismissed them, for looking too close to something you could get in this world, rather than something seemingly more impossible and exotic, that could be found naturally in Pure Illusion.

Hidaka looked up at me from his low position on the desk, like a suspicious dog. His eyes were narrowed behind his glasses. "Fine. I'll give it back when you return with the first batch."

I held my hand out for him to shake. "Sounds good to me"

* * *

We repotred back to Salt with what Hidaka said, that he'd accept me as one of Flip Flap (or at least let me join the team) if I got him a few samples from Pure Illusion to study. He didn't quite seem too pleased about it, or at least he hesitated before finally giving a nod of okay.

"So, how do we get to Pure Illusion from your base? You guys have a portal room or something?"

"We use the Thomasson"

"The what?"

Salt didn't explain or answer. I asked if he could at least tell us where to go, and got no answer. I felt a hand on my shoulder and turned to see Yuyu, who was looking outside Salt's office and pointing in a vague direction away from it. Toto was already walking in that direction, as was Nyunyu, who was still humming. Yuyu followed the pair of them out the doors, and I caught sight of Uexkull on her head again. I grabbed him, and handed him to Salt, quickly explaining that he was Cocona's pet rabbit and we found him, and that she probably wanted him back, before, like Yuyu, I left the room and followed Toto and Nyunyu.

Well, actually, I called for them to wait up for me. I quickly paid a visit to Sayuri and asked her if she could look after my leaf and my rock, and keep them away from Hidaka. She seemed a little confused by my request, but said she would, and I rejoined the amorphous kids.

It was a little bit of a journey to get to this 'Thomasson' Salt spoke of. It meant awkward sharp turns through corridors, and at one point, we had to walk along a thin uneven shelf which lead to a huge drop below. Nyunyu hopped along there, fearless, with no trouble, and Toto followed after her, completely unfased. _Well, of course he would be, he's probably got his rocket pack in there. _Nyunyu not even hesitating was probably a sign she still hasn't been to Pure Illusion at all yet. Heck, maybe she hopped along the thin path because she was excited to get a chance to go.

Yuyu, however, stood at the doorway and looked down, into the hole below. I knew how she felt. She'd saved me once from falling into a void in Pure Illusion once. _At least I can see the bottom to this one though. _I mean, it was still a pretty big fall, and would probably result in broken bones, if not death, but I've seen a whole lot worse...

I say that, it was still kind of a struggle for me to get on there, and balance without thinking about how one slip would be the end of me. I kept my eyes on Toto who was at the other end. _He would catch us if we fell. I'm sure of it. _The thought reassured me, although whether it was true or not, was another question. Thankfully, the platform we were all standing on now was large enough to hold all of us with no trouble, and I felt a bit better being there with Toto and Nyunyu.

There was still someone missing though...

"You okay there, Yuyu?" I asked, turning my attention back to the far end of the walkway. She broke out of her trance of staring into the pit below, upon hearing her name, and turned to look at me, her eyes a fraction wider than they usually would be. _She's scared._

"You'll be fine. We're not gonna let you fall, and if you do, we'll all be there to save you" I said, trying to give her a reassuring smile. I ducked down on the platform and held out my hand to her, trying to be encouraging.

She looked back down at the land below and slid an uncertain foot forward about an inch. Her arm-backpack glinted in the light, and it occured to me then why she was more worried than the rest of us about crossing here. She'd need her metal arm in Pure Illusion. Well, she technically _could _come to Pure Illusion without it, but if she did, she'd only have one working arm, and no way to defend herself. _And what if we had to climb somewhere? _I've had thoughts once before, in Pop's world, with its towers and skyscrapers, about if it would be possible for Yuyu to climb up them at all if it came down to that in the hunt for the amorphous in that world. I mean, she may well have been able to, but again, I wasn't sure effective a climber she'd be, powerfist or not... She could unpack it and leave all the contents on the floor, but if Hidaka came across them... Maybe it was just the usual suspicion I got surrounding anyone who wore a lab coat, after my time at Asclepius, but I wouldn't put it past him to want to experiment on anything in Yuyu's bag. Even then, if she did come with us, she's wearing a cast on her bad arm, and that won't exactly help for getting across to us.

_Maybe she'd be better off staying here._

"Hey, Yuyu," I called to her, withdrawing my hand, "You don't have to come if you don't feel up for it. We can go together another time." I had no idea if Toto or Nyunyu knew what was bothering Yuyu at all, or if it was indeed her arm she was worrying about, but it was my best guess, as she didn't much seem too happy about joining us if it meant walking along a thin ledge with something that could easily knock her off balance... Even if she _did _come across with us, and had her arm-bag converted back into its normal form, what would happen to all the things she packed in it? Would we just have to carry them around Pure Illusion with us? _I really don't think it's a good idea if she comes along this time... But what could she do here at Flip Flap's base that'd help out? _I thought for a moment, before coming up with a solution "Why don't you try and get on Hidaka's good side? Show him how my visor works or something. Maybe help him fix some of his robots?"

I wasn't too happy about Hidaka getting to poke around my visor, even though I was pretty sure there wasn't any personal or private information on it, but still, getting on his good side would help secure me a place here, and maybe he'd be more welcoming of the amorphous kids too. _That and we'll probably need more rockets at some point. Hidaka won't let us anywhere near anything to make them with, if he doesn't trust us. _

Yuyu stared at me, still wide eyed, for a moment, before she nodded and went back along the corridor to the main base.

_I hope she's gonna be okay..._

"Yayaka," Toto said, getting my attention. I turned to look at him, and he gestured with his head, walking along the corridor, with Nyunyu in tow. It wasn't long before I followed them.

* * *

Yeah, it defintely worked out that Yuyu went back to Hidaka, I have no idea how the hell she'd cram herself into the Thomasson with her friggin' arm. It wasn't quite as cramped as the mecha I piloted with Cocona and Papika in Pop's world, but still, it wasn't easy to fit the three of us in together. I wasn't entirely sure how the heck we were gonna get to Pure Illusion, basically being locked on a cupboard with two shelves, but if this is what Flip Flap used, we'd have to get used to it, I doubted Hidaka would _ever_ trust us if we went back to Asclepius' base to try and use the portal.

I was crammed in the lower compartment with Nyunyu, who was watching me, intently, with her big orange eyes. Toto had clambered onto the upper shelf... And... Nothing happened.

_How do they expect us to get to Pure Illusion this way?_

"Hey! Anyone there? How does this thing work?!" I was hoping there were microphones or something in here that could pass a message along.

"Synchronise your impedance!" Came a sudden, shouted response. It made me jump, and I banged my head on the ceiling of the compartment. _Crapping hell, Hidaka..._

"How do we do that?" I asked. I received no reply that time, and began to get grumpy. _Stupid friggin'... Why the crap do we have to impress this guy? _

"Yayaka" I turned to the sound of Toto's voice, and saw him holding both of his hands down past a small gap in his shelf, and had a thought. _Back at Asclepius, we all had to walk through the portal at the same time, and think about the same things... _It wasn't quite physical contact we had there, but we weren't moving here, (there wasn't really any way _to_ move here), and I guess it would help us...

Or maybe Yuyu had made it back to Hidaka and was typing a message to Toto's eyepiece. Heck, maybe that's how we heard Hidaka in the first place, they were talking through my visor to Toto's eyepiece. Who knows.

Either way, I took one of Toto's hands. It was... clammy, but not cold. You know, I'm not sure I've really made physical contact with either Toto or Yuyu before, I didn't know what to expect at all, he wasn't even warm. It was... weird. Nyunyu copied me, and took Toto's other hand, before reaching out for me. I was a little confused for a second, but I took her hand too, _we should be as connected as possible to get to Pure Illusion... _Her hand was basically just a smaller version of Toto's clammy, not cold... However, Nyunyu's _did _have some warmth to it. _Must be because she was a recent creation..._

We all sat there like that for a while. Toto's and Nyunyu's grips tightened on my hands. Still, nothing happened.

_We need to synchronise our thoughts... but how can we do that in here? What're we meant to be thinking about? _Somehow, I felt that if I spoke out loud about it, that it would be... wrong somehow... I closed my eyes in concentration.

_Think... We're doing this so we can stay here at Flip Flap, because we have nowhere else to go. We're going to Pure Illusion to bring back some samples for Hidaka to study. _

I felt a little spark at at that point. A little... connection, to something.

_I'm doing this for Toto, Yuyu and Nyunyu._

And that was the moment when I was pulled from one reality into another...

* * *

_Authors note: I think this is the shortest chapter I've written... The next one is kinda big though, and the one after that (Which I'm still working on) will definitely need to be split into parts (and may even result in kind of another fic posted full of 'deleted scenes' which didn't make it into this story because I felt there were too many opportunities to miss) so yes, kinda buying time for myself to write a little more of the 4th chapter. Thanks for understanding, and I hope you're enjoying the story so far!_


	3. Chapter 3

_Authors note: After a little thought, I've come to a descision: from this point onwards, chapters/scenes may change POV's for a bit, so from now on, the character's POV you'll be reading from will be stated with their name __underlined__ and in italics to show that. I'm not sure how many characters I'll show a POV from, probably not many, but still, I'm hoping I Can pull it off._

* * *

_Yayaka_

The journey to Pure Illusion was nowhere near as smooth as it was going through Asclepius' portal. Back then, we'd just take a few steps, and there we were.

Here, it felt like we were on a merry go round, that was going at a hundred miles an hour, and we were desperately trying to hold on.

I completely understood why Nyunyu had taken my had as well as Toto's, and why they were both holding mine so hard. I probably would have been flung off, alone, into the far reaches of some distant world if it wasn't for them. _It's really weird not having Yuyu here with us though... _Her gauntlet would have had no problem keeping hold of all of us, and we'd be fine for sure, but still, Yuyu didn't quite seem to want to come with us, and we couldn't make her...

Suddenly, all the chaos came to a halt.

Everything stopped.

I finally opened my eyes.

An army of shooting stars were racing through a deep night sky, above a land scattered with thin, pointed mountains, as if it was a forest of stone. The land was earth the colour of sand, with streaks of purple dust, which would catch the wind and shone as it danced through the empty spaces.

_Pure Illusion... _

_We made it! _

"Have a look at this, guys..." I said, in wonder. Hell, Toto and Nyunyu may well have already been taking in the sights, but this place... I've been to a ton of different worlds before, but it's been a long time since I ended up in one where my eyes were captured by the sheer beauty of this strange dimension. There was no mission this time for amorphous, and there never would be again.

We were free to explore as we wished.

_Yuyu's missing out. _She might not have cared about this place at all, Toto and Nyunyu might not be too fussed either, but I was just so... man, I don't even know. Pure Illusion just has so many marvelous worlds, each of them places that so many people on Earth would never know about, and I was one of very few people lucky enough to be able to come here. I really wish cameras worked in Pure Illusion, this'd be a great place to take some photos, I could take them back and show Yuyu.

_I need to take Cocona here one day. _

"Hey, Toto, do you think you can save these coordinates?" I asked.

There was no beep from his headset, and no reply from him at all. _That's odd. _It wasn't like him to not respond. _Maybe he _is _as marveled by this place as I am after all... _Maybe Toto liked fantastical scenery or something.

"Toto?" I tried saying his name again, as I turned to look at him, and my fear spiked.

He wasn't marveled by the scenery. He was kneeling on the ground, a hand to the scar on his head, and he seemed to be having trouble staying awake. His breathing was heavy (I guess I was so entranced by the place I didn't realise until now just how loud it was), and his body was shaking. Nyunyu didn't seem too concerned (she could have been for all I knew, I have yet to learn Nyunyu's body language and how she expresses emotion) and just stood there watching him.

"What's wrong, Toto?" I dashed over and knelt next to him as quickly as I could. His eyes flicked to look at me, and he tried to speak, only to manage a grunt and hissed from pain. My fear gave way to anxiety.

_Our ranged attacker and medic is down._

I had no knowledge of first aid (probably should have done, but Asclepius never bothered to teach me, amorphous kids probably have different biology to normal kids anyway, there was no guarantee anything I tried could work), and didn't really know what to do. It was probably a miracle that Toto never seemed to get hurt on any of our previous missions when we worked for Asclepius. Heck, even if he was up and about enough to deal with his own injuries, Asclepius prevented him from diagnosing himself with anything, never giving his eyepiece access to that information.

_His eyepiece! _Maybe we could contact Yuyu and Hidaka back at Flip Flap, maybe they'll know what to do...

"Toto, can you contact home with this?" I asked him, hoping he was at least in okay enough condition to help us out. No such luck. He tried to move the arm that was supporting his head over to his little visor, but doing so caused him to lose balance and collapse on the floor. The impact of him hitting the sandy earth caused his bag to open and for the contents to spill out. I could only really make out a scrap of fabric (I'd guess a spare school uniform), and a tiny gleam of light reflecting off the surface of something else, buried amongst...

_Crapping hell, Toto, how many Hole devices did you take?! _

Literally, I probably could have reached into his bag and kept clawing out handfuls of the damn things. The two things that weren't Hole devices were completely buried in the mess. I was momentarily stunned by the sheer number of them before I realised: I'm literally looking at _hundreds _of ways back home.

I grabbed one, and tossed it to the ground. All it did was clatter as it landed. _Why didn't that work? Was it a dud? _I tried another one, and the same thing happened. And again.

"Why isn't this working?!" I angrily asked, before throwing one as hard as I could across the landscape. It was picked up on the wind, and was lost amongst a cloud of the dancing purple dust. A part of me hoped it'd land and that the dust had somehow managed to activate it and get it working. No such luck. I was about to shout a curse, when I remembered I was in the presence of a child. _A child made by Asclepius..._

"Hey, Nyunyu, do you think you could take a look at those? See if you can get one working?" I asked. Nyunyu raised a hand and said 'okay!' before rummaging through all the devices all over the ground. In the meantime, I leaned over Toto, and tried to move him carefully, seeing if I could work out what was wrong with him exactly. His wound hadn't opened up, like I thought it had, and there were no blatant causes of pain otherwise. _Internal? _It must have been. _But why? He seemed fine before we came here..._

_Is it something to do with the world? _That was a possibility, but me and Nyunyu weren't affected if that was the case. _Some weird allergy? _I would have thought Asclepius would have removed all the possibilities for allergies when they created their artificial humans...

Hearing him struggling to breathe was getting painful for me, even though I was just listening to it. It was then that I remembered a piece of equipment we had that was very seldom used, heck, I think it was only used once, and by Yuyu, when she was trapped under a frozen lake. I rummaged through the pockets of Toto's weapon belt, until I pulled out one of the emergency breathing masks Asclepius had given us, and awkwardly tried to fit it around his head. I fumbled a little, it didn't help my hands were starting to shake, but eventually managed to get it on over his nose and mouth. Toto's breathing seemed to ease up a little, and his eyes flicked to me as he gave a slight nod of 'thanks', before his eyes closed. I was about to freak out, but I saw his chest rising and falling. _He's fine... for now. _In about 10 minutes I'd have to pass him my breathing mask, and after another 10 minutes? Well, I'd have to hope Nyunyu had one too, or that we had a way back home by then...

"Nyunyu, any luck?" I turned my attention back to her, and saw her holding a Hole device, turning it over in her hands, investigating thoroughly, but it seemed she knew as much about them as I did. That or, like the rest of most of our equipment at Asclepius, it was made specifically for the person using it, so only Toto could bring us back home. Although saying that, at the yuri-hell-school, Yuyu had managed to activate my visor and help get her arm working again... But going by how Nyunyu seemed as clueless as to what to do with the Hole device as I was, I'd begun to think maybe she didn't have the twins' talent for mechanics after all.

_Toto's hurt. It's just me and Nyunyu here. We're stuck in Pure Illusion, with no real way to contact home, and no Hole devices either..._

_How the hell did Cocona and Papika leave Pure Illusion when they wanted to? _

I tried to think back to all the times I encountered them when I worked for Asclepius, and remembered one time in the yuri-hell-school, when they were both struggling to open a Hole to get back. _They were both scared... So, it should have worked, as they were both feeling the same? _...Damn, that wasn't any help. Another thought I had then was that maybe they still weren't quite close enough, or they struggled with that, so they couldn't get back home...

_What if Cocona and Papika arrived here? They could probably take us back. _Hell, they'd probably have no trouble doing that. They're a couple now, and they seem pretty damn close...

_**((Switch with me))**_

_No! I can't think about Cocona! I'm not going to switch! I'm not!_

_**((I can save you. I can save all of you.))**_

_SHUT UP!_

I slammed my fist into the ground, and an orange-brown glint from my neck caught my eye. _The dragon egg necklace... _I was still wearing the thing. I'd forgotten it was even there...

I turned back to Nyunyu, and saw those big owl-eyes watching me. Eyes the same colour as the gem on the necklace. _I'm not alone here. Nyunyu is with me. We can work a way out of here together._

"Nyunyu, is this your first time to Pure Illusion?"

"Yep!"

"Did Asclepius teach you anything?" I realised that my question was probably pretty vague, but I didn't know what to ask specifically. Even then, any answer she gave could have been helpful.

"Nope!"

_...Any answer except that one at least. Frag..._

I was about to speak again, when a rumbling growl shook the ground. _And now there's a potential monster attack. Great._

"Nyunyu! Put Toto's stuff back in his bag, we gotta get moving!" I gave my command, as I tried to put my arms around Toto to drag him along with us, as he was in no condition to move himself. _Sorry if this hurts, Toto, but we don't really have a choice here!_

Nyunyu obeyed, trying to gather together all the stray hole devices, and as she did so, I caught a glance at the item that gleamed beneath them, that wasn't his school uniform. _Is that a photo? _I could just about make out a lot of people, _a school photo of his class? _I found it easy to pick out Toto in it, his red eyes a huge giveaway. They weren't quite looking at the camera though, and seemed a tiny bit more focused on the person on his right.

Nyunyu had just managed to stuff it into his bag before the wind picked up, becoming a harsh, howling gale. My eyes were getting dry, fast, and the dust was becoming blinding, to the point of I could barely see an arm's length in front of me. I cursed Hidaka for keeping my visor, as it would have been really damn helpful now. I'd be able to pick out all the points in the landscape with its green wire-frame mode, it would keep the dust out of my face...

I nearly ended up in a coughing fit when I inhaled. I got down close to the ground, trying to keep my face out of the way of the dust, as I scrabbled around in my pockets for my own breathing mask. _Sorry, Toto, but I'm not gonna make it either, if I don't use mine. _I put it on my face, and took a deep breath. My throat still felt tickled a little from the dust I hadn't managed to expel, but I'll just have to put up with that for now. _I've just cut down Toto's survival time if we don't get out of here-_

_Crap, what about Nyunyu? _

Just as I was about to sit up and ask her if she was ok, a thick metal ring sailed in a curve a foot from my face, a blue light shining from it, forming a screen as it did so. _What the...? _I followed the trail of light with my head until it came to a stop. Nyunyu was standing there as if she'd just thrown something... _Nyunyu's weapon... _I forgot Nyunyu even had one, I've only seen the thing a few times, and as far as I knew, all it could do was hover (okay, you could probably smack someone around the head with it pretty hard if you wanted to), so seeing it able to do this was... unexpected. Asclepius always gave me the impression that they firmly believed 'the best defense is a good offence', so the fact that they'd created a weapon for Nyunyu with a feature like that was pretty weird to me.

I guess I won't complain though, the barrier was a dome around us, and it kept the choking, blinding dust out. _Now we just have to work out what to do._

"Nyunyu, is this barrier mobile? Can you move it around?"

"Dunno!"

Although I was tempted to try and experiment, see if that was a possibility, I didn't want to disturb it too much in case it somehow broke the barrier. _This could be the first thing of its' kind Asclepius made after all, my speed booster was experimental and kept shorting out, I don't wanna risk messing this up too. _

_...But what else could we do here? _There was no telling how long this dust storm would last, it could have been two minutes, it could be five years. I'd just have to hope the barrier lasted. I debated whether I should remove my breathing mask as we had protection from the extreme weather, but if something happened and Nyunyu's barrier went down, there might not be enough time for me to put it back on. I doubted these things had an 'on/off' feature, they probably just activated whenever they were put on someone's face and continued to provide oxygen until it ran out.

"Damn it!" I cursed, slamming my fist into the ground again. _We've barely been here five minutes and we're already in danger this bad! Why couldn't Hidaka just let us join up?!_

Thinking about Hidaka made me look back over at Toto. His eyes were closed, and he was still breathing. I had no idea if he was even concious any more. I looked at his eyepiece again. _The only hope we have is to try and contact Flip Flap... I hope I can get this thing to work..._

* * *

_Yuyu_

Couldn't walk across thin path. Scared. Might lose items. Not mine to lose.

_'You don't have to come if you don't feel up for it'. _Yayaka's consideration for others. Not the first time. _'__And the twins... I know they're not exactly normal, and they were just made to get the amorphous, but... I want them to experience all those things, like I did. They've been with me and kept me safe for all these years, and I never really payed attention to them until a little while ago... Asclepius created two kids like me, real human beings, and just shoved us all into the same situation. 'Get the amorphous, so we can rule the world'. Toto and Yuyu never even got a chance to be real kids.' _Away from Yayaka. Dimension within Pure Illusion. Trapped with Cocona and Toto. Saw Yayaka and Papika. Could lip read. Her speech was genuine.

She cares.

'_We can go together another time.' _Yayaka's promise. Go to Pure Illusion together later. Would like to.

'_Why don't you try and get on Hidaka's good side? Show him how my visor works or something. Maybe help him fix one of his robots'? _Yayaka's command. Currently obeying. Find Hidaka's workshop. Return through corridors.

Papika's robot in path. Tripped. Fell. Pushed self back up. Cast taken damage. Arm ok otherwise... As much as can be. _Defective... _Hate bad arm. Couldn't go with them. Maybe for the best.

Arrived at Hidaka's workshop. Still examining Yayaka's visor. Poking. Prodding.

"Why won't this thing turn on?!" He yelled, arms in air. Slightly amusing. I smirked, then approached, face blank. He didn't notice me. Not for a while.

"Amorphous child! If you're part of Flip Flap now, I command you to help me with this!" Loud, shouting. Annoying. Yayaka said to help him. Get on good side. Should obey. Took Yayaka's visor from him. Used it before. Linked it to my arm. Removed backpack/arm with some difficulty. Hidaka watched eagerly. Curious. Unfolded arm. Thin, squashed can became thick metal arm. Good. Useful. Stored items, books and clothes, fell out.

Connected the two, arm and visor. Yayaka's visor reacted. Activated.

"Bound to Asclepius. Usage permitted only by them. Can scan. Pick out detail. Receive message-"

"Hey! Hello? Anyone there?! Yayaka calling Flip Flap, wanting to speak to Hidaka or Yuyu! Can you hear me?" Yayaka's voice! Nice to hear... But from Toto's eyepiece...

"Danger?" I asked. Most likely conclusion. Frowned.

"We're caught in a dust storm. Nyunyu made a barrier, but we don't know how long we've got. Toto's... he's... Can you guys get allergies? There's something wrong with him, he's basically asleep and he only has a few minutes left on his breathing mask." Sheer panic in voice. "We can't get the Hole devices to work! We can't get back!"

_Toto-onii-chan... Yayaka... Need help._

_Technology needs amorphous and power in Pure Illusion. Toto is amorphous... But damaged. Unable to help. Nyunyu is amorphous, but Hole devices unresponsive. Not enough power? Yayaka can transform with amorphous. Generate power. Best solution._

"Yayaka, transform."

"How can I do that?! The amorphous in my weapon belt is dead, I don't have any amorphous I can use!"

"Toto is amorphous..."

"He's sick, Yuyu, what if I accidentally make him worse?"

Faint smile on my face. _She cares. _Smile gone. "...Nyunyu is amorphous"

"What if I hurt her too?! Yuyu, I-"

"Yayaka, emergency situation. Only solution." Wanted to sound urgent. Couldn't. "Risk one death? or make three certain?" Harsh? Yes. Necessary? Also, yes. _Brother... Sister... Yayaka... Can't lose all of them. _

"Transform," trying to persuade her. ...Unsuccessful?

Pause.

"Flip flapping!"

After that, sound cut out. Silence.

"Yayaka?" no response. _Why? _Visor still on... Toto's eyepiece failure? _Hope that's only failure... _Can only wait.

Can only hope.

* * *

_Yayaka_

I wasn't only hesitant to transform because of Toto's condition... _**((switch with me...))**_ I was hesitant to think of Cocona. What if something happened to me when I transformed? What if I lost control of myself? _I can't let that happen. Cocona's made her choice. I can't take that away from her!_

"Yayaka, emergency situation. Only solution. Risk one death? or make three certain?" Yuyu's monotone voice came from the other end of Toto's eyepiece. I could understand what she was getting at... But... I really didn't want Toto or Nyunyu to die…

…_But what if I pulled power from both of them? tried to balance, or even it out? _

And that was when I came up with another idea: _Could I somehow get Nyunyu to help Toto? _Could I act as some sort of connection between them to try and transfer power?

Would it even work? Probably not, but this was probably the best way to get out of this place alive with everyone else.

_There's more than one solution Yuyu… I hope._

I grabbed Toto's shoulder, and reached for Nyunyu's hand (her only response to me doing so was to stare. Her head twitched a little, like a bird. Maybe she was confused. Sorry, kiddo, no time to explain!)

_Cocona is precious to me, my most treasured person… but I treasure these guys too. And I want to make it back home, so I can see Yuyu, Papika and Cocona again. I need to make it back to the people I care about the most!_

_**((Switch with me…))**_

_Tempt me all you like; I'm not giving in! I can do this myself!_

"Flip flapping!" I yelled it as loudly as I could, using my desperation in an attempt to try and bolster my voice, and try and get Nyunyu and Toto's amorphous-made bodies to react to my battle cry. _ Come on! This has to work! It _has _to!_

The blue light from the barrier seemed to grow weaker, and for a second I worried, thinking Nyunyu's barrier had finally crapped up on us… But when I saw the green light glowing around me, spreading onto Toto and Nyunyu, that worry felt dumb. Power coursed through me, a lot of it too. Much more than I would have liked. _Direct it to Toto somehow! _

I tried to focus my mind, and closed my eyes, picturing all the energy that was gathering in my body, as if it was water pouring into a bowl. Carefully, I imagined myself pushing the water away from me, trying to get it to fall on Toto instead.

_Come on… This has to work!_

I nearly jumped out of my skin when I heard a 'pop', and almost released my grip on the two amorphous kids, but managed to hold on, even though I'm pretty sure a glass shard just sliced across my fingers. That was enough to make me open my eyes though, curious as to what that was exactly.

Looking at Nyunyu, she seemed to be focusing pretty hard herself, staring at Toto, as if she could somehow read my mind and knew what I was trying to do. Her eyes and hair seemed a little brighter as she did so, my transformed eyes must've been glowing pretty brightly to turn her hair that shade of gold. Or maybe that was probably just a side effect of being an amorphous kid and having your power activated. Either way, that wasn't the important thing here.

Turning to Toto, I saw his eyes were open… and his left eye was no longer covered by his eyepiece. _Must've exploded from a power overload… _Although Toto's probably most useful piece of equipment was gone, I smirked. _If he's sick or tired, a power overload can't be too bad, right? He's awake! This has to be a sign it's working!_

"Toto! We need a Hole, fast!" I wish I didn't need to use so many words to try and get across the situation we were in, and tried to use the absolute bare minimum I could without being too vague. Good thing I did too, literally the instant I finished speaking, Nyunyu's barrier broke, and we were swarmed by the windstorm of purple dust again. Nyunyu covered her mouth and nose with her free hand as best as she could. I didn't need to worry as I had my breathing mask on… Well, I say that, it wasn't long before I had to close my eyes, or risk getting blinded. I'd guess that Nyunyu did the same.

_I hope Toto can figure something out. Can he see past all of this? _I wondered briefly if his processing power was so good he could actually see each individual grain and be able to tell you where all of them were going.

I tried to take slow, deep breaths, in an attempt to calm myself down. _Toto can do this. He's better now. He can save us all. I just have to believe in him._

I felt something small spark in me then. A little warmth in my chest…

A connection.

It was a surprise, and I kinda zoned out and forgot where I was, as I tried to work out where this newfound connection had come from. It felt a little familiar to me… similar to the one I had with Papika and Cocona when we used the mecha in Pops' world. But this time, I think I was linked to Toto.

"Hole open!" Toto's voice bought me back to reality. He must've grabbed my arm that was on his shoulder, as I felt something grip it lightly, before giving a sharp tug…

* * *

We landed with a harsh thud on the floor of Asclepius' base. Annoyingly, despite the white clovers that seemed to cover almost every other square inch of the building, the Hole device had dumped us in the one place there wasn't a single soft landing to be seen: my bedroom... well, there was one part of my room that could be considered a better place to land, but even the softness of my bed was questionable.

Okay, it would have been softer than _this, _but still... It was then that I had another thought: _Toto's hurt, and he had just as bad a landing as I did. _

I immediately jumped to alertness all over again. _Where the hell is Toto? _Not too far from me was the answer, which I was pretty thankful to learn. He appeared to be out cold, which was a little worrying, but he still seemed to be breathing, which was the main thing. I didn't want to remove the breathing mask, just in case it was the only thing keeping him alive. I was a little hesitant to go up to him and try pick him up, but I had no idea of his condition, if he'd recover right away, or if he needed help, but I remembered Yuyu saying there was a machine somewhere in the Asclepius building that could heal him. Hell, it fixed up his scar, so if there _was _something wrong with Toto, I guess at least we'd landed in the best place possible to try and fix him.

_We should take that machine back to Flip Flap with us if we can... _I'd wonder about using the tunnels Asclpius dug underground to raid Flip Flap's base in the first place to transport it there, but Flip Flap could have blocked them back up or something. Either way, I shouldn't be thinking about how to get the machine there, I needed to find the damn thing first.

"Nyunyu, there's a machine in this building that can heal him, any idea-"

"Here!" Nyunyu was already rolling in some sort of device that looked like a hospital bed with some kinda dome-helmet and another beeping machine connected to it. Nyunyu just about managed to wheel it through the doorway to my room, and pushed it against the wall. I tried to lift Toto up onto it, first having to drape him partially over the edge, before I could shove him on completely.

"Nyunyu, get this thi-"

"Shut up! Nyu don't have to tell me!" came another interrupted reply. I was a little tempted to yell at her for talking back to me like that, but I'll let it slide, as she was probably as worried as I was, and we were both snappy because of it... or I'd _guess _that's what Nyunyu was feeling, the only change her face made in all that time, including when she was moving the healing machine in here, was her mouth moving to speak to me. If she found the bed heavy to move despite her small size, she showed no sign of it. I'd wondered for a second about Toto's stuff, whether it'd been taken with us, but I saw a second bag on Nyunyu's back in addition to her own...

While Nyunyu was pressing buttons and adjusting Toto so he was lying down on his back, rather than his side, I noticed something had changed in my room... I hadn't missed any white clovers when I looked around before, my bed was all still in one piece, but there was something that should have been _on _my bed that was missing. _Where the hell did my jacket go? _I opened up a pocket on my weapon belt and stuck a hand in, feeling the fabric that belonged to a clone of the item that should have been sitting on my bed. _Did it disappear because of this one? _I've seen a couple of movies before where a time traveller goes and meets a past/future version of themselves, and it messed with the time stream, so in an attempt to fix the mistake, one of them would have to die... _Can that happen with objects in Pure Illusion?_

..._We're_ _not still in Pure Illusion, are we? _That thought made me frown. It wouldn't be the first time one of Asclepius' Hole devices crapped up on us and sent us to another part of Pure Illusion, rather than back to Ascelpius' base and it wouldn't be the first time I've been in a place in Pure Illusion that was a replica of home either... I stepped out into the corridor, and my boot crunched lightly against the puddle of plantlife that was a result of Mimi's attack. Much like the outside of the building, the inside of this corridor looked like it could have been a part of some ancient jungle ruin, rather than a part of a high-tech research facility. But the sound of my foot making contact with the clovers suggested this was the real world: It was a soft noise. It didn't echo through the corridor, like it would have done in another reality. I felt a bit better about that, but I still wanted to double check that we _were _back in Asclepius' base on Earth. I mean, if we weren't it wasn't quite so bad, because even if it was a replica, it still had a machine that could fix Toto, so he'd be able to get us back out anyway, but still, Toto didn't have his eyepiece to confirm any more where the heck we were, or where we'd end up if a Hole was used.

_The amorphous kids are safe, and Yuyu made it to Hidaka ok... But if this _is _still Pure Illusion, then I shouldn't be able to transform. _

I walked back into the room, put a hand on Nyunyu's shoulder and tried to think of all the people I'd want to protect.

"FLIP FLAPPING!"

...

Nothing. No glowing light, no power that came with transformations.

_Yeah. We're back. _I breathed a sigh of relief.

"What are nyu doing?" Nyunyu asked. My relief became embarrasment. _I just yelled out a nonsense phrase for seemingly no reason... Wait, does Nyunyu not really know what happened back when I tried to use the amorphous power in Pure Illusion? _I would have thought Asclepius would have told her something like that... _But if I turned my back on them, and they lost their faith in me, why would they trust someone else with the knowledge of that sort of thing? ...Were they worried Toto and Yuyu could change sides too? _I thought again about how Toto had planned to go to Flip Flap when Asclepius was gone. _Yeah, I guess I can see why Asclepius never told Nyunyu about any of that..._

"I was trying to transform," I explained. "When you're in Pure Illusion, if you have the power of amorphous and you think about some-" I almost said 'someone you love', but those words were difficult for me to say, like I tried, but all that came out was silence, as I stuttered a little as I stumbled over them. _Papika explained it to me differently. What did she say? _"Something you treasure, or even some_one_, then..." Then what? I wasn't entirely sure what happened or how it worked myself, "...you can transform." I felt a little lame that was the only way I could answer, but that was pretty much all the intformation I knew. "But yeah, I did that so I could see if we were still in Pure Illusion, or if we made it back home and... we're home."

Nyunyu continued to stare at me with her big owl eyes. She didn't blink once during my whole speech, and showed no real reaction to what I was saying. I'd _guess _she was listening, but I had no way of knowing. _Right, move on from that conversation. _"How's Toto doing? Can the machine fix him?"

Nyunyu looked back over at Toto. "Toto-onii-sama will be fine. Just gotta wait!"

_That's good news at least. _We've probably only been gone a minute or two in the whole time we were in that other world, so I guess at least if anyone at Flip Flap was worried about us, they wouldn't have to worry for too long... "...But if something like that happens again, we need to take that machine with us. Your biology has to be different to a regular human's, and if that's the only thing in the world that can give you guys medical attention, it's not gonna do any good staying in here, if we're all a part of Flip Flap now." I wondered for a second why Yuyu didn't destroy the machine along with all the other technology in Asclepius' base. Maybe she knew that this thing would come in useful in the future... _She wouldn't have been wrong... and I guess we couldn't really have taken it with us back then, not without getting a lot more attention than we already did talking across the middle of town. Four kids with a weird hospital bed? Yeah, that'd raise questions... _

"What're nyu talking about?" Nyunuy's voice knocked me out of my thoughts and back to reality.

"Huh?"

"Nyu were saying we need to take the machine with us!"

"I did?" I hadn't realised I'd spoken out loud at all until she mentioned it... but it's a good thing she did, because I think I just came up with a solution to that problem: "Yeah, we do... Hey, Nyunyu, Asclepius dug a hole to Flip Flap's base to raid it, right?"

"That's how I got there!"

"Any idea if they fixed it back up?"

"Not a clue!"

_Crap. If it's been blocked up again, that could be a problem... Well, there's only one way to know what happened there, _"in that case, I guess we should go check it out. Moving Toto wouldn't upset the healing process right?"

"Shouldn't do!"

"Okay. Let's go then"

* * *

The wheels of the hospital-bed machine squeaked as we wheeled it through the roughly hewn tunnels Asclepius dug under the city. They used some sort of drilling machine apparently, but where that went exactly, I wasn't sure. Maybe Hidaka discovered it later and scrapped it for parts, or maybe it was made to self destruct when it reached its destination. We didn't see the thing at all, and the only evidence such a thing was here at all was the fact we were literally walking through the path it made. Heavy tracks were pressed into the ground, maybe permanently. There was enough space for the bed to be wheeled along the middle without having to have it bump up and down everywhere, which was lucky I guess, as I was pretty sure we couldn't have transported this thing underground without somhow making Toto worse by him being bumped along everywhere. I was walking a fair distance ahead, keeping an eye out for any potential stray Asclepius robots that might've been lying around. We encountered none.

Eventually, we came to a tunnel that was outlined with concrete and metal, rather than raw earth. There were a couple of large boulders at the end, and what looked like a busted up bank vault door, which I recognised. _Okay, they didn't block it up. Good to know._

I was a little surprised as I stepped out into the newest tunnel that the tire tracks from when I followed Papika's robot Buu, and Nyunyu's set of footprints from when she was a part of the raid on Flip Flap's base, were still here, undisturbed... well, apart from the fact there was a third set, mine, that was now a part of it...

You know, now I think about it, it worked out that all my original footprints were still there. When I followed Papika's robot, I was _leaving _Flip Flap's base, so if we followed them the other way, it'd take us back there. Or to their medical room at least. It might still be kinda hard to get to the main base from there, but still, we had a direction to go, and that was good enough for me... _But wait, Buu was built here. Being a robot, he must have come from the main part of the building... Even if it lead to a robotics room, surely there was some form of communications between there and the main base... or even if we just flat-out ran into him, that'd work pretty well. Even if he went through a vent to get here, Nyunyu might be small enough to fit, and I could stay with Toto._

_But what if the medical room would be the better option? _I don't know it Toto needed his eyepiece to tell him what sort of medicine to use, or if he'd need any at all, even then his eyepiece was gone, and even if it wasn't he'd have no information on himself anyway...

_Crap, which way to go...?_

Nyunyu had caught up with me, and watched me as I paced up and down the corridor, trying to decide which set of tracks to follow. It was then that I heard a sharp 'BEEP' come from their direction, and saw a blinking light on Toto's breathing mask. Almost an instant later, Toto started to cough, and his body writhed a little. In a bit of a panic, I rushed over and tried to remove the mask from his face, while also trying to detach my own. AFter what felt like way too long, I succeeded, and put my breathing mask over his face. It only really had a couple of minutes left, but Toto settled down, and even then it helped answer my question. I cursed myself for even hesitating.

_Medical room. Flip Flap have to have _something _in there that can keep Toto going._

"This way!" This time, I grabbed the side of the hospital bed sorta thing, and helped Nyunyu. Hell, I should have been doing this in the first place, I'm the fast one after all. I hoped Nyunyu could keep up with my pace, because we ended up going pretty damn fast.

The instant I passed through the doorway, I started yelling. "HIDAKA, YUYU, SALT, SAYURI! MEDICAL ROOM! EMERGENCY!" _They had to have speakers in here, or microphones or something. _I doubted they'd be as paranoid as Asclepius and bug every room in here, but there had to be communications of _some _sort throughout a base as big as this, despite how few people are actually here. _They have to get the message. They have to. _

It was probably barely a couple of seconds since I sent that message, but time felt like it'd stretched out impossibly thin, to the point of even taking a breath felt like it would have taken a week to actually do. I was somewhere between wanting to smash everything in here, in impatience and worry, and being frozen in place, desperate for someone, _anyone, _to help Toto, and _fast. _I knew my breathing mask had only a minute or two on it at best, and every second that passed would be another towards the possibility of Toto not making it.

When someone finally arrived, it was... unexpected. Or at least I didn't really expect Toto's saviour to arrive in the form of a small yellow robot with a helicopter propeller on top.

If I was in any regular state of mind, my first thought would have been, _they sent Buu? Really...? _but right now, I didn't care that they sent Papika's robot, help was help.

_Please tell me he can actually help._

"Toto's having trouble breathing" I wanted to say more, or even yell at the poor robot, but time was important here. The faster I could get the message across, the better.

I've never really gotten a good look at Buu (or TT-392 as everyone else at Flip Flap called him) before. He was shaped mostly like a yellow cereal box that was flat to the ground, that wheeled around everywhere. It had a wide cone-like... lid? on its back. (I'm not sure if it's a lid or detachable, but its got hinges at one end). Its head was on the end of a thick cable, that was able to wiggle around and support it's half-cylinder head, able to aim it in any direction. Three antennae stuck up from its 'head' and, there was also a flat round screen on its face, which could slide along the front of it. Its 'eye' I guess.

Buu's eye flashed to an exclimation point upon seeing the three of us, and became a question mark as it looked over Toto. Then it 'blinked' and returned to a blue circle, and with an alarmed sounding 'Pyu!' it began to rummage around the cupboards in the room.

"Me too!" Nyunyu said, copying the yellow robot, and searching cupboards and things by herself. _Would she even know what to look for in here? ...Wait, why aren't I helping look for something, too, if this is such a desperate situation? _Cursing myself, I began to rifle through all the cabinets in the room. There weren't many, and I almost ripped the doors off a couple of them in my urgency to find something, _anything_, we could use... not that I knew much about medicine, I could have passed ten things that would have been useful and not even realised it, but still, Toto needed help, _now. _As long as those cupboards were open, someone else could see something that I missed. If it made Toto get better sooner, I was completely fine with that.

"Pyu!" The excited noise came from Buu, who'd managed to dig out a metal cylinder, I'd assume was an oxygen tank. Or maybe gas that'd knock someone out. I had no idea. One end of it was connected to a clear mask which would fit over someone's nose and mouth, which suggested it could be something useful at least, and I'd assume Buu would know the sort of thing we'd be looking for. As long as it helped Toto breathe, and kept him alive until further examination could be carried out, that's all I cared about right now.

I gave Nyunyu a command to remove the mask from Toto's face so I could swap it with the new one. There was a moment of worry as Toto took, what sounded like, a pretty painful breath, before I gave him the replacement mask, but he settled down again after the exchange was complete.

_At least we have time now... Hopefully he can get better again, now we're back home..._

A few seconds later, Hidaka burst into the room, kicking the door out of the way, causing his lab coat to flap out behind him, and knocking his glasses askew. He was carrying a cardboard box full of various pieces of equipment, and looked around quickly, trying to find a space he could put it down, and buried his hands in it, searching for something.

"What the hell took you so long?! Toto could have died in the time it took you to get here!" I shouted, angry. _For craps sake, this is an emergency! _

"TT-392 was closest." Yuyu was the one who'd spoken. She was looking into the room from behind the doorway. She stood motionless, arms by her side (well, her bad one still in its cast), the only thing about her that betrayed the fact she was terrified for her brother was the fear that widened her eyes a fraction.

I took a deep breath to calm down. _Hidaka sent Buu ahead, because he knew the situation was bad. I shouldn't have yelled at him. He's a guy in a lab coat, sure, but he's not a part of Asclepius. When I was injured and taken to this very room, Cocona was holding a flower pot that looked like a robot's head. Sure, it was creepy as hell, but he didn't know me, and he made me a 'get well' gift... It's a lot more than Asclepius have ever done for me._

That reminded me... I still had to thank him for that. And even then, what did I tell Yuyu earlier, when we had to leave her behind? 'Try and get on his good side'... _Well, if we're gonna be working together, I should probably be doing that myself._

"Hey, Hidaka...?"

"I'M WORKING HERE!" He yelled, finally pulling out a tool (some handheld scanner at a guess), and approaching Toto to examine his condition. Fury filled me upon hearing his voice, dismissing me, when all I wanted to do was apologise for being mad earlier and to thank him for the gift he gave me. _He's just another scientist in a lab coat after all... Man, I'm sick of this..._

I figured it'd be a good idea to get out of his way. I didn't know much about Hidaka from what little I've seen of him, but one thing I was pretty sure of, was that you shouldn't bug him while he's working on something, unless you're helping him. Since I knew nothing of mechanics and medicine, I doubted I'd ever get along with Hidaka, or not any time soon at least...

I was alone as I left the corridor and tried to find my way back to the main area of Flip Flap's base. I didn't really know where the heck I was going, but as I walked along, I noticed a series of large holes in the wall, all pointed in a single direction... Towards the medical room. _Must be from Asclepius' attack... Yuyu punched all the walls down. _I hadn't noticed any holes in the medical room itself though, so I guess they fixed that, but not all these other holes. _Well, it looks like they just lead to other corridors anyway, and Asclepius is gone, and there's no other organisations that know about Pure Illusion as far as we know, so what'd be the point, right? Even then, there's not many people here, it'd take a long time to fix..._

"Pyuuu?" I looked down at the source of the noise and saw Buu looking up at me questioningly... or his eye was a question mark at least, and his 'head' turned to the side a little. I wasn't really sure what the heck he was doing here. Did he know I was upset with Hidaka?

Regardless, I won't complain that he is here, after all, "I have no idea where I'm going in here. Can you take me to Sayuri or Salt?"

"Pyu!" Buu's eye became a blue circle and he led me away from the amorphous kids and Hidaka. As he guided me through the building, I began to try and map out where I was in my head and where to go... it made me feel a little sad doing it. The last time I needed to do this was when I was trapped at the yuri-hell-school with the twins... Me and Toto spent our time walking around, and he tried to get me to learn my way around and where I was going...

_He helped me out back then. I'm not sure we would have been able to get to the clock tower and escape otherwise if he hadn't made me memorise all those places... Now he's hurt, and I have no idea how I can return the favour..._

I almost stopped in my tracks, as an idea I've had for a long time began to play in my mind.

_Well, I can't help with healing... but there is _something _I can do. He should be fine now that Hidaka's with him, but he's probably not gonna be able to go to Pure Illusion for a while... but that won't stop him from having fun in the real world. I might have to sneak him out, but screw it. Toto and Yuyu never got the chance to be real kids thanks to Asclepius. They deserve to know what it's like, and what they're missing out on, and they might never get the chance again if Flip Flap keep sending us on Pure Illusion research missions._

_As soon as Toto's able to, I'm gonna take him, Yuyu, and Nyunyu out into town, and have some damn fun._

* * *

_Authors note: Not quite where I wanted to end this one, but I had no idea where else to end it. I've had a few ideas for things that happen in the real world with everyone for a while now, a couple of ideas amused me to the point I was smiling for no real reason on public transport, and may have gotten a few funny looks for doing so. Well, when they're written, I hope they amuse you as much as they amused me. The next chapter will contain those ideas, and is also an absolute monster of a chapter at around 20k words AT LEAST (I debated moving the latter events to another chapter entirely, but... I don't know, I'll they'll work better as a super-long chapter, split into parts). The latter half of the chapter is the one that amused me so damn much (and would be even longer, but I've decided I've had to cut scenes and maybe post them in a seperate fic) and when it's posted, I hope you'll see why. I'm not sure if I'll post them on the same day or not, I'm still deciding that honestly (partly because I'm still writing the latter half of chapter 4, but yes) I hope you enjoy it when you read it, and also that you're liking the story so far._

**NOTE/POSSIBLE TRIGGER WARNING: I wrote this chapter before the Covid-19 outbreak/pandemic. I feel I should give a fair warning now that Toto's breathing in the fic doesn't get any better. I don't know if I need to label it as a trigger warning, but just in case, I shall do so. One of my friends has ended up catching Covid-19, and it sounds horrible to deal with. They're ok at the moment, thankfully, but still. I've been finding it hard to accept that one of my friends is sick with it, and I very much hope they get better. I apologise if it seems insensitive to people to have written something like this, or upsets anyone who reads this. If you know anyone who's sick, I sincerely hope they get better too. Stay safe, wear a mask, and wash your hands! **


	4. Chapter 4 - Part 1 (A morning in town)

_Authors note: This first half of a chapter (and the second half, which I'll post next week) contains adventures in the real world. I've tried not to make all the characters seem like idiots, not knowing what some things are, but I've been trying to think in terms of what the characters would actually know, like Papika seems kinda wild, even though she got her memories back late-anime, knowing some things and being unfamiliar with others, and the amorphous kids, like... well, they were just created by cultists who wanted to take over the world. Toto and Yuyu could probably pass for regular kids, but still. I'm hoping I haven't accidentally made them too stupid or anything._

* * *

_Yuyu_

Stayed at the side while Hidaka worked. Worried. Wanted to help. Wasn't sure how. Yayaka left when Hidaka yelled. Wanted to follow. Say something. Try and help.

Can't help.

_Useless. Defective..._

Could only watch.

Hidaka worked quickly. Grabbing tools, switching them, investigating machine. '_Why don't you try and get on Hidaka's good side?' _Machine. Can work the machine at least. _Can help._ Speak? No. Hidaka would get mad again. Just go. Went to machine. Monitored information. All seemed fine.

Time passed. Hidaka changed tools many times. Mumbled to himself. Eventually, "Now this is interesting... He's made entirely from amorphous..." he said. "You have blood, and bones, and muscle, but you don't need to get nutrition from outside sources to keep it all going... You don't regenerate though, or heal like a normal human would..."

"Machine required for healing," I said, "Asclepius made. Special power source." Fine with speaking now. Answering quesitons. More information given; more trust built. More chance to 'get on his good side'.

"A special power source... You mean amorphous?"

"No. Never found any. Not before Cocona and Papika."

"Then how were you two created from amorphous in the first place, if you guys supposedly never found any?" Sounded suspicious. Watching me carefully through glasses.

"Previous experiments. Mimi and Papikana. Also made from Mimi's blood. Me and Toto. Machine powered by it."

"How has the blood been preserved for that long? Normally you can keep it for over a month, years if you freeze it, but freezing blood isn't recommended..."

"Unknown." The truth. Hidaka looked uncertain. Thinks I'm lying, maybe. Gaze went to my bad arm, still in cast.

"Is that what happened to your arm? Did you get a bad batch of blood in your creation?"

"Possible. Unknown." Again, the truth. Irritation. "Always been _defective_." Hate that word. Hate my arm.

_Hate._

"You have a gauntlet, don't you? You used it to carry your things from Asclepius over to Flip Flap. I take it when you're in Pure Illusion wearing that resolves your problem?"

Nod. Anger. Clenched fist. _Useless otherwise. _

"I might be able to fix that."

Surprise. Tension in hand gone. "How?"

He smiled. Glasses flashed, as he adjusted them. "In your own words, amorphous kid: 'request trade'..."

* * *

_Yayaka_

I left the medical room without even really thinking. Even as Buu lead me back to the main part of Flip Flap's base, I still couldn't think, or not much beyond everything that'd happened today... or at least since I woke up in the real world. _Asclepius is gone, everyone who worked there is pretty much dead, I've joined Flip Flap... or I'm trying to, as there's nowhere else for me to go. Toto's kept an eye out for me all those times in Pure Illusion, and he helped me again earlier, by trying to get me a place here, and he's taken care of Yuyu and Nyunyu too, getting them to join as well... Then when we get here, me, Toto and Nyunyu all get sent to Pure Illusion, where Toto almost died..._

To say the least, it's been the hell of an eventful day, and I was exhausted. If Toto hadn't required immediate medical attention, I would have probably gone to bed right then and there. Frag knows I've had enough of Pure Illusion for one lifetime. To have a break from all of this would be wonderful, and right now, I wanted to sleep more than anything else.

If I had the energy right now, I would have turned around and wandered through the tunnel back to my room at Asclepius' base, but the main Flip Flap building was far closer than that. It's such a big place here, they were bound to have a spare room or a few I could hang out in, but at the same time, I had no idea what Flip Flap's defense systems were. Maybe it's paranoia from my time at Asclepius, but I didn't wanna get caught out in some nightly robot patrol and have to run for my life. I doubted I'd really be in condition to get out of the way fast enough if that was the case. If I met Salt, or someone, and told them I'd be staying at the base overnight, then they'd tell any guard robots or whatever not to target me at least. Okay, Hidaka would probably be the guy to ask about that sort of thing really, but he doesn't seem to like me too much, and even then, Hidaka would take orders from Salt, so all I'd need to do would be to convince Salt really...

"Yayaka?"

I nearly jumped when I heard someone say my name. The voice didn't belong to Salt or Sayuri, and I was so lost in my thoughts, it took me longer than it should have to recognise it.

Although recognising the owner of it wasn't too hard when they crashed into me and almost crushed me in their arms, in a very enthusiastic hug, a trail of long, pink hair falling down her back.

"Yayaka! You're okay!" Papika's voice was filled with joy, as she rocked me gently in her arms. Well, gently beyond the fact it was a little hard to breathe. A few weeks ago, if she'd treated me like this, I would have shoved her away and would have probably shouted at her... but now? After all I'd been through today?

This was nice.

A lot nicer than I was used to. I sniffed and felt a wetness on my face, as a tear fell down my cheek.

"Yayaka?" Papika's happy voice became filled with concern, and she loosened her grip on me. It felt like she was about to pull away entirely. _Don't go. _I surprised myself, as much as her, when I ended up folding my arms around her in return, trying to keep her near me.

She let out a little squeak of confusion at the way I was acting, but Papika didn't stay like that for long. Her arms went around me again, as she held me, this time in a more careful grip. I felt like I should talk, explain what the heck was going on with me, and as I opened my mouth, Papika squeezed me a little tighter in her arms, and I felt a little twinge in the bond between us. I didn't need to tell her anything. She'll find out the reasons I was so upset later, for now, she knew I needed comfort. And she understood.

"It's okay, Yayaka. I'm here," she whispered.

I don't know how the hell I became quite so close with Papika in the short time I've actually spent interacting with her, but right now? I'm not complaining in the slightest. Somehow, she just sort of _knew _how I felt, and in her embrace, I felt safe.

When I calmed down enough to stop crying, Papika pulled away entirely, and I let her. She looked into my eyes, her bright, friendly blue as welcoming as a sunny sky, and gave me a gentle smile.

"Come on," she said, her voice soft. She took my hand, causing my face to flush (I don't have a crush on Papika, I swear. ...Or I don't think I do at least), and she lead me to a room just a little further from the spot we were standing in moments before. I could see blue light bouncing off walls and a number of computer terminals ahead, which suggested we weren't far from Flip Flap's main room.

But still, the place Papika lead me into was small. A single lightbulb illuminating the room, a little dim, it might need replacing soon, but it lit everything up just fine. Beyond a bed and a small table, there was only one item in the room: a photoframe containing a picture I couldn't see, due to the reflection of the light on the glass.

"This is my room at Flip Flap," Papika explained. "I don't stay here much, but you can use it tonight if you want. Don't worry about me, I have my own place."

I wanted to speak, to try and thank Papika, but I could still feel a bit of a lump in my throat from crying earlier.

"You don't need to say anything," She said, her smile getting a little warmer as she spoke. "It's dark outside now, and it looks like you've had a long day. Please, try and get some rest."

She squeezed my hand, before leaving me alone in the room. The place was a little cold without her presence.

_Get some rest..._That sounded like a good idea. I made my way over to the bed, and as I did so, I caught sight of the photo in the frame: a picture of Cocona and Papika, both smiling for the camera. They looked cute together, and I ended up smiling at it myself... until I caught sight of a red-eyed reflection of myself in the glass.

_**((Cocona should belong to you. Switch with me...)) **_

I turned the photo down, so it faced the table, and tried to push that thought away. _Cocona's chosen Papika. Not me... _And after how Papika treated me today, it wasn't hard to see why Cocona had ended up falling for her. Papika was kind, and gentle, affectionate and caring...

_And I was the one who lied to Cocona her whole life..._

I know Papika letting me stay in her room at Flip Flap was meant to be an innocent gesture of kindness, but it also bought back feelings of jealousy and agitation.

_Because she's chosen you..._

Thankfully, it wasn't long until my exhaustion won out over any negative thoughts that were running around my brain, and the second my heavy limbs sank down into that bed, I was asleep.

* * *

I wouldn't be able to tell you how much time had passed between me falling asleep and waking up, but going by the ache in my limbs, I've probably slept through a whole day, maybe even two. Either way, it's been a fair while, and I wanted to check on Toto, and see if he was doing any better.

I forced myself up and out of bed, feeling a bit shaky, and turned the photo of Papika and Cocona back up, so it was standing, before I slowly made my way to Flip Flap's medical room. Thankfully it was pretty easy to find with the great huge series of holes in the walls pointing pretty much in that direction. I'd wondered before why Flip Flap hadn't fixed all of them after Yuyu punched them all down, but at the same time when I thought about it, maybe that worked out for the best. If someone got hurt again and there was an emergency, you wouldn't need to make your way through a labirynth just to get there, there was a nice easy path. Hell, it might even have saved Toto's life.

Getting there was easy, and I opened the door without knocking. Even if I had knocked, I wouldn't have gotten a reply. Hidaka was fast asleep, flopped backwards in one of the chairs in the room, and the only other people in the room wouldn't have welcomed me anyway. Or not spoken out loud at least. Nyunyu and Yuyu both turned to look upon hearing a noise come from the door. I was pleasantly surprised to see a second set of red eyes watching me as I stepped into the room, and a small smile pulled at Toto's mouth as he saw me. It was really good to see him without some kind of mask on his face.

_Hidaka's asleep, and these three are all awake. This could be my chance to sneak them out, and show them the world they've missed out on._

"How're you doing?" I asked Toto.

His face fell neutral. "Alive. You saved me." before becoming a light smile again "Thanks"

My eyebrows raised in surprise. _He... thanked me? _That was the first time I've heard any of the amorphous kids say anything like that to me. You think by now I'd learn to stop being surprised by all the things these guys are capable of, but that one really threw me off. _I still have a lot to learn about them._

"N-no problem" I stammered. I cleared my throat and spoke again, "Can you walk?"

Yuyu and Nyunyu had both turned to watch him, as if they wanted to know the answer to that too. I thought I saw a nervous twitch cross Toto's face, but before I could think about that too much, he moved so he was sitting on the edge of the bed, before standing up. He wobbled a little, unsteady for a second as he tried to get his balance, but soon seemed stable enough on his feet.

"Able to stand," he said, before tentatively taking a step forward, and another. It shouldn't have been so strange that he did that, as he ended up in pretty bad condition in Pure Illusion, but the fact I thought I saw him look nervous earlier raised suspicion in me. _He _looks _like he's fine, but there still seems to be something up with him._

"Able to walk," he said, having managed to get from one end of the room to the other with no trouble beyond the first step. _If there _is _something up with him I doubt it's physical. _Yuyu seemed pretty eager to get moving when Toto's head wound opened up the last time we were here, I'm sure she would have picked up on it, if there was something like that bothering him. _I'll keep an eye on him, just in case. In the mean time..._

"Come with me, you three," I said, grinning, "We're going on an adventure, and not to Pure Illusion this time."

* * *

As I lead the twins and Nyunyu out of Flip Flap through the tunnels (or tried to, I probably took us on a bit of a magical mystery tour. I really should force myself to learn my way around here) I realised that my plan to take them to town and hang out had some flaws. First, like I said before, the fact I was meant to be taking them outside, and I had no idea where I was going. Second, I wasn't entirely sure what the hell I was going to do with them, or what they'd want to do.

Third, and probably the the biggest problem: even if we wanted to do things, none of us had any money. Well, Asclepius gave me a small allowence back when I was a part of their organisation, but most of that went on cream bread, and I hardly saved any of it. I doubt there was much we could do with only a few hundred yen...

I sighed as I walked. _I got so caught up in my own idea, and I might not be able to show the twins all I'd want to show them. Damn it... _Walking around all these tunnels was getting annoying. _I need someone to show me out..._

Thankfully, that problem was resolved pretty easilly, as it wasn't long until we encountered Papika and Cocona, the former dragging the latter around by her hand (they were down there because Papika wanted to check up on me and Toto, and Cocona got worried when she heard about the condition he was left in from that last world.)

My heart started beating like crazy when I saw that night-blue hair, and those shining brown eyes again. It might have only been a few days since I've been her last, but that didn't stop the sight of her being a very welcome one. She was also blushing a little, I'd guess being embarrased by Papika, still not quite used to the pink-haired girl's big shows of affection (or at least, beyond the one time I tried to escape the hospital with Cocona, or maybe when she was with her granmda when she was younger, Papika was the only person to grab her hand, which she probably did so, every chance she had). Either way, the light pink on her cheeks was also quite nice to see... _How does she feel about seeing me again? Is she mad at me?_

Although at the same time, seeing my two best friends together like that made me smile, it also tore me up a little inside. _Cocona's made her choice. I need to accept it and move on. __**((Switch with me...)) **_

I began to feel uneasy, and wanted to turn around and walk back the way I came, not really wanting to face Cocona, feeling unable to trust myself around her with all my selfish thoughts. I held my arm out, signaling the amorphous kids to stop, and took a step forwards on my own. In reality, I was barely a foot further away from them, but it felt like it may as well have been a mile. _I'm the only one that can apologise for my mistakes after all, they can't do it for me. _My legs felt heavy as lead, as I shuffled one foot a little further forward and tried to look Cocona in the eyes.

Papika must've sensed something was going on, as she let go of Cocona's hand, and very gently, pushed her towards me. I opened my mouth to talk and I felt my voice catch in my throat. Wanting to look anywhere but at the person I've lied to, feeling ashamed of my past actions, I found myself looking at Papika, who gave me an encouraging smile.

I closed my eyes to compose myself, swallowed my nerves and was about to talk, when for the second time in recent memory, I found myself wrapped up in a caring hug.

Don't get me wrong, I was pretty happy at the fact she did that, but the only thought on my mind was: _You're not mad at me? _I wanted to ask her that out loud, but before I could:

"I'm just glad you're safe," Cocona's sweet voice whispered in my ear. I felt my face flush at that, and I was pretty sure Cocona could probably either feel or hear my heartbeat, as once again, it skyrocketed, being in such close contact to her. I was somewhere between wanting to push her away, embarrassed, and also just wanting to stay there in her arms forever. _((Switch with me...))_

I grit my teeth, trying to keep any retort I had in my head, and pulled away from Cocona, not quite trusting my ability to keep that voice from making me act out. She seemed a bit confused, but I forced a small smile. _It probably looks like I'm acting weird... I don't care. I need to keep control of myself._

"Is something wrong?" Cocona asked me, as if on cue.

"Nope, nothing's wrong," I said, hoping like hell I sounded convincing. It was then that I realised the solution to my problem was standing right in front of me. "But while you're here, can you help us out...?"

* * *

I felt guilty about asking Cocona if I could borrow money, so I could show the twins and Nyunyu what the world outside Asclepius and Pure Illusion was like, but she didn't mind and was okay with the idea. Heck, she and Papika decided to come along with us.

"It sounds like fun!" Papika said, eyes shining with excitement.

We managed to find our way out of Flip Flap through the office building, and stepped out into the sunlight. All six of us were wearing our school uniforms, as we didn't really have much else in the way of clothing, even Cocona who'd lived with her grandmother for all her life...

Actually, where does Cocona live now her 'grandmother' is dead? Probably with her father, Salt, now that she knows who he is, and I'd also guess he's the one who gave Cocona so much money. I was pretty shocked to see how any coins and notes she'd managed to stuff in her skirt pocket (okay, not really having a sense of money after being raised by cultists, I had no idea if it actually _was _a lot she had, but it looked like it to me.)

"So, where do you want to go?" Cocona asked. She'd ended up in the lead (being a fast walker), and turned to face the rest of us, who were just sorta in a group behind her.

"Go?" Yuyu asked.

I wondered for a second why she was asking that, but then I realised: I said I was gonna take them on an adventure to somewhere that wasn't Pure Illusion, but I never actually told them what I had planned.

Okay, I didn't really have too much of a plan myself, but still, I should at least reply, or tell them what I had in mind. I felt shy all of a sudden as I spoke, "Well... there's lots of places we could go," and turned to the amorphous kids, "Toto, Yuyu, are there any places here you've wanted to visit, but have never been able to see because of Asclepius? Or you, Nyunyu? Anything about this place you're curious about?"

I didn't get an answer for a while, and I was starting to feel awkward, cursing myself for having such a silly thought, that they've thought about this sort of thing before, when clearly they were just happy enough to sit in Asclepius' base and read or make robots all day... But it took me a while to notice, although the twins' facial expressions didn't change, there was a little spark of alertness in their eyes. Nyunyu just stared at me, but maybe she stood up a little straighter, as if she liked the idea. Despite that reaction though, none of them said anything. _What do they want, suggestions? _

"Like... I don't know..." _damn, what the hell am I meant to say? _"Any shops you've looked at, but never been inside?" _have they even have a _look _at the shops around us? _"or a café," _Yayaka, they don't even eat... _"or..."

I stopped talking when I noticed Yuyu turn her head and say 'there' before wandering off. Cocona and Papika were faster to react than I was and followed her, with Toto and Nyunyu and myself not far behind.

When we looked through the window, and saw all of the musical instruments on display, I immediately understood why. A variety of guitars, ukeleles, trumpets of many shapes and colours all sat on shelves, the arrangement I found a little appealing myself, even though I've never really taken an interest in music before. Yuyu put her hand on the glass, as she stared at a large white piano that was the centerpiece of the display.

"What's this?" Nyunyu asked, as she looked around, trying to take in everything around her.

"A music store. You can buy things here that you can make music with," I explained. _Has she not seen the room at Asclepius with the double bass and the piano? Probably not... I don't think Asclepius would have made her with being able to play instruments in mind. Or not musical ones at least._

"Buy things..." Yuyu's monotone voice had a hint of longing in it, as she looked at the white piano. Her reflection lined up with it almost perfectly, her hand that was touching the glass could have been holding up the lid, and the one in the cast could have rested on the keys. That made me wince. A Yuyu in Pure Illusion told me that she wanted nothing more than to play the piano with her brother. As if she knew what I was just thinking, Yuyu took her good hand away from the glass, and muttered "defective..." to herself, and turned her back on the shop. Apparently the real Yuyu wanted nothing more than that very thing. I began to think this whole outing was a bad idea, and I wanted to say to the others that we should just head back to Flip Flap and forget this whole thing happened when Toto walked inside the shop and started talking to the owner. It was impossible to hear the conversation, but Toto's head tilted to the side, like it does sometimes when he asks a question, and I saw the shopkeeper smile, before the both of them turned to us, the shopkeeper beckoned us inside.

Papika got to the foor first, and held it open for Cocona, and then the rest of us followed inside.

"Toto, what-"

He cut me off before I could ask what he was doing. "Never heard me play. Want to show you." He sat down at the piano and...

I know pretty much nothing about music, but his fingers glided along the keys, efforlessly. playing a gentle melody that made me think of a wide open meadow. Much like how Cocona had a way with words, and easilly painted pictures in my head of all of the things that happened in her stories, Toto would press another key, and a new flower, or a butterfly would be added to that meadow, dancing in the colours of a warm sunset. The way he played, it sounded like he could create an entire world, with only sound.

_I can see why Yuyu has such a fascination with music... _

Much too soon, Toto stopped playing, bowed to the shop keeper and thanked him. Papika and Cocona were just as surprised at the sudden stop, they were standing there, leaning into each other contentedly, and all of a sudden snapped back to reality when it went quiet. I, on the otherhand, stood there open-mouthed, amazed at Toto's talent. Nyunyu didn't really show any signs of having enjoyed the music, but when we left she exclaimed "Toto-onii-sama! That was so cool!" And Yuyu smiled at him, although it was happy to start with, it became a wistful one, before fading entirely and her good hand rested on her damaged cast. The others were all making a fuss of Toto and praising his talent, leaving Yuyu standing a distance away, left out.

"We'll figure something out, Yuyu," I said, putting a hand on her shoulder, wanting to try and help. "You'll be able to play one day. I'm sure of it."

She turned to look at me, her red eyes emotionless, and replied with something that seemed like she believed what I said: "Problem will be resolved," before confusing the hell out of me adding, "Trade accepted."

_Trade accepted? _

"Hey! Yuyu, Yayaka! Hurry up!" Papika called, waving her arm so much she could probably have swatted clouds away if there were any close enough to the ground. Toto and Nyunyu were looking in the window of another shop.

"Come on," I said to Yuyu, leading her over to where the others were.

This time, it looked like a little art gallery, or at least there were a few paintings of various styles, (Impressionism, cubism, traditional Japanese painting, abstract, surrealism...) visible through the window. I had no idea who was the one who wanted to have a look, but I completely understood their curiousity.

"It looks like Pure Illusion..." I mumbled to myself.

"'Pure Illusion'...? Now that would be a good name for a piece." A mysterious voice said behind me. I whipped around, hand going to my rocket belt (although I didn't have it on me, it was just a habit), to see a girl a few inches taller than us, with long green hair, a few strands of which were trying to escape from the ponytail it'd been tied into.

"Senpai!" Cocona exclaimed. _'Senpai'? _I looked the green-haired girl up and down again. _Is this who Cocona was worried about, the one whose memories she saw? What was her name... Irodori?_

"Friends of yours, Cocona?" Irodori asked, looking at all of us. Cocona introduced us all, I raised my hand in a little wave as my name was told, Toto and Yuyu nodded, while Nyunyu raised her hand high in the air.

"...And this is Papika-"

"I'm Cocona's girlfriend!" she exclaimed, wrapping her arms around Cocona's shoulders, and trying to nuzzle up to her. Cocona blushed, embarrased, and gently tried to push Papika away, but the gesture was only half-hearted, and there was a tiny smile playing on her face.

"Girlfriend, huh?" Irodori asked, teasing. "When's the wedding?"

Papika's head tilted to the side, like a confused dog, and repeated the word 'wedding' questioningly, as if she didn't know what it meant (if she did, she probably would have proudly announced the date and time, down to the exact second). Cocona however, seemed pretty embarrased. Her face went red and she looked down at the ground, probably wishing the ground would swallow her whole and save her from the question... But she didn't object, or throw out any shocked comments, and I felt she would have done if she was really against the idea. I've already kinda seen the two of them both in wedding dresses back in Pure Illusion, and if that's what they decided, I'd be happy for them... but another part of me wished that _I_ was the one standing next to Cocona getting teased about when our wedding was going to be... That I was the one she was leaning against when Toto played the piano and shared that hidden world with us...

_**((Switch with me...))**_

"I was kidding," Irodori chuckled, amused by Cocona's embarrasment. "You guys look cute together though, and you're still welcome if you want to join the art club. All of you," she said, looking at each of us in turn. I was kinda surprised she extended the offer to the amorphous kids, who didn't even go to her school, but she seemed nice enough, and if Cocona liked her, she couldn't be a bad person.

She said goodbye shortly after, and left us all standing there outside the art shop. Toto and Yuyu watched her, intently, as if they were thinking about her offer to go to the art room one day. _Well, if they want to go, they can now. Asclepius isn't there to hold any of us back any more._

It was then that I realised Nyunyu had gone and wandered off somewhere else.

"Hey, have any of you guys seen Nyunyu anywhere?"

Yuyu started looking the moment I finished speaking, and Papika wandered off a little, calling Nyunyu's name. Toto's left hand went up to the side of his head, as if he was going to click his eyepiece on and help us find her, but of course, it wasn't there, having exploded when we were in Pure Illusion last time. His hand twitched in the empty space where it should have been, before he too, began to look around. Cocona blinked, still flustered by Irodori's 'wedding' comment, and then, finally registering what I'd asked, and replied "I thought she was still here."

"Yeah, so did I, but apparently she's gone and wandered off," I said, with an edge to my voice. _Where the crap did she go? _There were more people than I would have liked around, as they made it harder to look for Nyunyu. I debated splitting up and searching for Nyunyu, but then realised we'd have no way of contacting each other. Despite that though, Cocona got out her phone.

"Can you guys use this to help somehow?" She asked Toto and Yuyu. They both blinked and looked down at her phone. Papika stared too, before she suddenly jumped up.

"That's right! I forgot!" Papika dug around in her skirt pockets, her tongue poking out her mouth a little, as she searched, before she took out a thin solid slab and handed it to me. "I picked it up back when we fought the bad Mimi! It's your's isn't it?"

I was a little bewildered when I found myself looking down at the cracked screen of my phone. Honestly, I was amazed the thing had made it out of Pure Illusion in one piece, I was pretty sure it would have shattered entirely when I threw it at one of the monsters Yamimi had summoned try make it let go of Cocona's leg. Apparently, it still had power too, as it blinked to life when I clicked the power button. When it loaded, it revealed a few unread texts from Cocona, and a number of missed calls from Toto, and one missed call from Yuyu. _Missed calls? What the-_

"Nyunyu! Where are you?!" Papika's voice broke into my thoughts, and I cursed myself for getting distracted. I shoved my phone into my skirt pocket. _We have more important things to think about right now. _I didn't really want to lose Nyunyu somewhere. Would she be able to find her way back to Flip Flap? Maybe, but we should probably find her. She pulled a gun on Hidaka when they first encountered each other, and not much time has passed between now and then, I don't really want her to go around threatening strangers or acting weird.

We continued our search, all five of us looking in different directions, trying to work out where the heck that kid had wandered off to. Cocona ended up being the one to spot her, her blue-silver hair tied up in bunches was poking over the top of a couple of people, who were standing around talking a few feet in front of a shop that seemed to have a sale on bug catching equipment. Various butterfly nets and insect cages were on display, along with a number of brightly coloured signs trying to entice people into taking a look. Apparently, they were working on Nyunyu.

"Nyunyu wants to catch bugs!" she exclaimed, before looking up at me with those large orange eyes. Her voice and face showed no signs of excitement or eagerness at all (I was starting to think Asclepius didn't bother giving her the ability to show emotions at all. Well, what'd be the point I guess, when you're made to collect amorphous?) but if she said she wanted to catch bugs, then I guess I'd just have to go along with it.

"You guys fine with bug hunting?" I asked. No one had any complaints, so we went in and bought some basic equipment, enough for Nyunyu at least. Papika thought the idea sounded like fun too, so Cocona bought a few things for her too. Papika nuzzled up to her in thanks before charging off, with Cocona racing after her.

"I'll call Yayaka's phone when we're done, so we can meet up later!" She shouted to us, before rushing after the wave of pink hair which was quickly making its way to the school grounds (probably to hunt for cicadas on the trees. There's enough of them around that area, they were bound to catch a few of them, as long as Papika didn't scare them off in her eagerness.)

I ended up staring after them and shaking my head in a 'what're you gonna do?' gesture, before I turned to the amorphous kids. Nyunyu's huge eyes shone a little as she held a net in each hand. Toto was holding a book about bugs, and Yuyu was carrying spare insect cages, a number of them were balanced carefully on her cast, while her other arm wrapped around them, making sure they wouldn't fall off.

"You guys ready?" I asked. Recieving a trio of simultaneous nods in response, we left the shop and...

I had no idea where to go. I stood around for a while, a little lost for a second, before deciding maybe Papika was onto something with the school grounds. _If we ran into them, maybe we could have a bug catching contest... _

We were around halfway there, when my stomach growled pretty loudly. I bent over, and put a hand over it, as if to try and quieten it, and suddenly realised that I probably haven't eaten in days. Toto turned to look at me, questioningly.

"I'm fine, Toto, just hungry," I said, although saying that, I suddenly felt a little weak, as if the realisation of how long it'd been since I last ate has only just hit me. I took a quick look around at our surroundings and realised I wasn't too far from a café I knew about. "You guys wait here, I'll be back in a bit."

I wandered along a couple of streets and found the place I was looking for. It was a little surreal to run into this place I'd seen in Pure Illusion before when I was seperated from Toto and Yuyu. Hell, everything looked exactly the same as I remembered it... Well, furniture-wise at least, highly polished tables on the inside, and when I entered, a bell rang above the door. There were a few people sitting in some of the seats, but none of them really paid attention to the girl in her school uniform that'd just entered.

Also, like I remembered, there were glass cabinets with cream bread on display, and it looked just as nice as it did back then too... I was a little dissapointed though, that when I got to the counter, that I wasn't looking at a wavy-haired Cocona wearing a frilly apron, and had a mischevous sparkle in her eyes (who I'd nicknamed Cocohi to avoid confusion). Instead, I was being served by a guy in his early 20's. He seemed pretty friendly though, and happily served me a couple of pieces of cream bread to go which I gladly accepted, and tried my hardest not to cram them in my face the instant the bag touched my hands. I would have bought a lot more if I had the money for it, but this was all I could afford, so I should try and make it last.

...Okay, I managed to make it outside the store at least before I ripped the bag open and began to dig in to one of the pieces at least. I met up with the amorphous kids again, before we headed off to the school grounds.

* * *

My cream bread didn't last long at all, much to my dissapointment, and I was still hungry, but I felt a little better having eaten something at least. Nyunyu seemed a little stuck as to what she was looking for exactly, like, what bugs lived where, so Toto got out the book and read through the information out loud (he'd probably read the page the instant he laid eyes on it, but read it out loud for Nyunyu's sake) and showed her the pictures. Like before, he put his left hand up to his head where his eyepiece would be, as if he wanted to scan the book and tell Nyunyu more than what was printed on the pages, but he wasn't able to do so. I wasn't sure, but I swear Toto's voice... fell, a bit as he spoke. I'm not really sure 'fell' is the right word, but it definitely changed tone slightly. Yuyu seemed to pick up on it too, looking at him when his voice changed, but she didn't say anything about it. _I guess at least I'm not the only one picking up on this stuff..._

After Nyunyu had learnt enough from Toto, she wandered off towards some of the trees. Toto tucked the book under his arm, and took a butterfy jar and an insect cage from Yuyu before following after her. Yuyu hung back a while, hesitant.

"Dislike insects..." she mumbled, so quietly I almost didn't hear her at all, but despite that, she still went to join the two of them. The comment caught me off guard for a moment. Beyond Yuyu's arm, I think that was the first time I've heard one of them saying they explictly didn't like something. And for Yuyu, it was insects. _I guess that explained why she seemed so eager to destroy one of the monsters in Pop's world... Hopefully though, she won't do that to anything Nyunyu catches._

I caught up to them a little while later, and asked Yuyu if she wanted me to take some of the insect cages. The second the words were out of my mouth, she took her good arm away from the cages, so I could take some, and she nodded her thanks.

I wasn't really sure how long the bug hunt actually took, but we were probably out there for at least an hour. Nyunyu kept saying "There!" whenever she found one, and tried to wave around both her nets to catch one. Eventually, after no success, I took one of the nets from her. "Yuyu, can you take this, too?" I knew it might not have been too good an idea, as she could end up dropping all of them on the floor at some point, but I figured the fuller her free hand was, the less likely Nyunyu would ask her to help handle anything she caught. I don't know if Yuyu knew what I was thinking, or if she just sorta assumed it was an order from me, but she took it, and tucked it between the cages and her body, keeping it secure.

Removing one net from Nyunyu's hands didn't improve her bug catching skills too much, and her head tipped to the side. At first I thought, like the twins or Papika, it was a sign she was questioning something, but when Toto knelt down to talk to her, and with a tone of gentleness to his voice tried to explain information from the book about how to catch insects again, I realised that Nyunyu might have been upset, and Toto was trying to reassure her. I found myself smiling a little at the sight of it. _Toto's trying to be a good big brother._

It wasn't too long before Nyunyu 'recovered', gave Toto a nod, and she returned to hunting insects, a lot more slowly this time. She eventually saw something on the side of a tree, and swung her net down quickly, to trap it. She called Toto over, and he hurriedly got an insect cage, open and ready, for Nyunyu to carry her first catch in. I came over, curious to see what she'd caught. It turned out to be nothing more than a regular brown cicada, nothing too exciting, but she'd manage to spot it, despite the fact it's colouration made it blend against the bark of the tree fantastically well, and I wouldn't have even known it was there unless it was buzzing (but then, they're kinda hard to miss when they're actually buzzing, being pretty loud.) _She must have pretty good eyesight. _

"Well done," Toto said, praising Nyunyu for her first successful catch. I joined in too, with a 'good job'. Yuyu just stared down, watching the cicada in the cage, the knuckles on her fist white.

"Can I keep it?" Nyunyu asked. Her face betrayed nothing, but there was a tiny hint of hope in her voice, the first time I'd ever really heard any emotion from her at all. _She must really like it… _I scratched the back of my head, nervous, pretty sure the people at Flip Flap wouldn't appreciate having an insect in their base, caged or not, and tried to work out the nicest way I could tell her that. Yuyu's eyes held a hint of horror at Nyunyu's question, clearly not a fan of the idea.

Toto however, was pretty calm about the situation and just said "We'll ask," which was probably a lot simpler/better than just flat out saying 'probably not' like I would have done, or squishing it like Yuyu looked like she wanted to do if she had her gauntlet available.

After Toto's response, Nyunyu had already run off again, trying to find something else to catch. I was about to follow her when I felt a buzzing from my skirt pocket, and saw Cocona's name flash on the screen. I instantly got a little nervous and my heartbeat quickened._ When was the last time I spoke to Cocona on the phone? _I hoped whatever she had to say, that the conversation didn't last too long, as I had no idea how the heck to handle this sort of thing.

"What do you want?" I asked, and immediately regretted doing so. It came out a lot harsher than I meant it to.

"Hey, Yayaka," came Cocona's sweet voice from the speakers. Thankfully, she was used to the way I spoke, and knew I didn't mean to come across as rude, so she continued speaking pretty normally, ignoring my outburst "Papika was getting hungry, and we figured it's around lunch time. Do you and the others want to come with us?"

I opened my mouth, about to tell her that it was dumb that she invited the amorphous kids along too, because they didn't need to eat, but I managed to bite back that response. _She probably doesn't know that after all. _"Hang on a second, I'll ask" I said, hoping that sounded a lot more normal. _Well, even if she _did _know that, she'd probably still ask anyway, wanting to be polite and include them. _I was about to yell across the school grounds, to invite Toto and Nyunyu, only to see them a short distance away, with Nyunyu intently stalking another bug, and Toto watching carefully. They seemed to be having fun, and I didn't want to interrupt that, especially since this could be the first chance either of them had to wander around like this. Yuyu however was standing next to me, still balancing all the bug hunting stuff on her arms. I have no idea if she heard Cocona talking at all, but she'd probably be pretty happy to get away from the whole bug hunt.

"Cocona and Papika are going somewhere for food, and invited me to join them. I know you guys don't need to eat, but you wanna come with?" I asked. Much like before, when I offered to take some of the bug hunting gear from her, her nod was almost instant. Her eyes hadn't changed in the slightest, but I if I could read her mind she probably would have been thinking 'yes, anything to get me away from here, please.' I put the phone back to my head and said "Yeah, I'll come along, thanks for asking. Yuyu said she wants to come too. Toto and Nyunyu are having fun and said they'll get something to eat later." I probably could have told her the truth right then and there, that the amorphous kids don't need to eat and Yuyu didn't like bugs and wanted to come with us to avoid that, but for some reason, I couldn't get myself to say that.

_**((So used to lying… So many lies…))**_

I almost threw my phone to the ground as hard as I could, as if the voice had come from there, and smashing it would silence it, but I stopped myself_. _Instead, I took a deep, slow breath, trying to calm down, and said I'd meet them at the thinking man statue on the school grounds, before shutting off my phone without a goodbye, and shoved it back in my pocket. I knew it I looked down at the screen, I'd be looking at my face with red eyes, and that _would _lead to a destroyed phone. I took a few more deep breaths to calm down, and try and ignore any more thoughts that were trying to sneak into my head. Yuyu watched me, her brow furrowed the slightest bit in confusion.

"I'm fine, Yuyu," I said, and tried to give her a smile I hoped hid my sudden anger. Before she could ask anything though, I approached Toto and Nyunyu, who were both trying to get another cicada into an insect cage.

"Me and Yuyu are gonna meet Cocona and Papika and get lunch." I said. Toto nodded accepting my words, but he turned to face Yuyu, and his head tilted, asking a silent question, to which Yuyu responded.

"No use here. Will accompany Yayaka." She said, trying to put all of the spare insect cages and the butterfly net on the ground. Toto seemed to accept this answer.

"See nyu later!" Nyunyu said, before turning her attention back to her newest catch. I gestured with my head for Yuyu to follow me, and we both headed to the designated meeting place.

* * *

For a second I thought Cocona and Papika were going to take us to the café I'd already been to, but instead Cocona took us somewhere else entirely, a diner that did a variety of food, including things like burgers, rice, fries, sushi, and like the café before, cream bread. It seemed like a pretty weird mix, but this place was pretty busy, so it has to taste good here, or is popular enough to remain open at least, so although strange, I guess I won't complain about it… not until I've tried the food for myself at least.

All of us (minus Yuyu) ended up going for the same thing: burger and fries. Cocona, because she's had them before here and they were good, Papika because it's what Cocona was having, and me, because although I was tempted to just buy out every piece of cream bread they had, I figured I should have a meal rather than a ton of sweets. I probably should have ordered more than just this, considering I haven't eaten properly for four or five days, but I didn't want to use up so much of Cocona's money (it was hers' after all), especially when she was being kind enough to help me out with wanting to show the amorphous kids some of the world they've missed out on.

I've seen a burger before, don't get me wrong, but still when I saw it sitting on the plate in front of me, it was… a little threatening to be honest. I mean, sure, I'm used to eating cream bread like there's no tomorrow, but this burger… it felt like a miniature tower compared to that. Packed with meat and lettuce and tomato… It was a little hard to take a bite because of its sheer size, but when I did, WOW. I've never tasted anything like it! (well, of course I wouldn't have basically living on cream bread, Asclepius rations, and the very few things I had when I stayed around Cocona's house for dinner) but still! The meat was warm and tender in the inside, a little crispy on the outside, the lettuce added a nice crunch, and the bun was soft and fluffy, a little dry, but the slices of tomato inside helped with that. Oh MAN, this was _delicious! _It was pretty difficult to restrain myself and not wolf the whole thing down in just a few bites. Papika seemed to be enjoying hers just as much (although she _did _wolf hers down in a couple of bites, I've seen her down riceballs at least ten times bigger than they should be, so that didn't surprise me in the slightest. Cocona however, seemed to be taking her time. She looked a little concerned for a second, and I wondered why, before she swallowed, and asked the question that must've been playing on her mind.

"Are you sure you don't want something, Yuyu? I'm happy to pay for it" she said. She seemed a little uneasy as she spoke, I guess maybe still trying to get used to the fact she was talking to a sister she'd only recently discovered she had, along with the rest of her family consisting of another younger sister and a brother, all of those siblings being made from what were basically magic gemstones, and discovering her parents _are _in fact alive, one of which is a man with all the friendliness of a potato, and the other is a woman with god-like powers and lives in another dimension...

Actually, yeah, I guess no wonder she was uneasy talking to her recently-discovered sister, as that means acknowledging the rest of a strangely huge family you didn't know you had until a few days ago. Learning all of that in such a short time, it's probably a miracle Cocona hasn't exploded.

"Not hungry" Yuyu said, her gaze turning away from the food, probably feeling awkward about having come along at all. _She must really hate bugs… _

It wasn't long before Papika had finished her fries, eventually just leaving me (almost all of mine were gone though) and Cocona, slowly eating her food, although she took breaks every now and then to get out a notepad and a pen and write something down. Beyond our table was quite a bit of noise, from various people talking about all sorts of things, and also there being background music on the speakers (which I wondered if Yuyu was listening to, and would have asked her about, but I was really curious about what Cocona was doing), and I decided to kill the silence in our part of the diner asking about it, "What's with the notepad?"

Cocona was finishing writing something down, and didn't reply. I was pretty sure she wasn't ignoring me at least, I've seen Cocona get pretty absorbed in school work and reading before, it was probably just that, so Papika was the one who answered for me, "Cocona's decided she wants to be an author and write books!" she said, proudly. Apparently Cocona _was _listening to the conversation, as suddenly became embarrassed, her cheeks went a little pink, and she tried to take shelter behind the notepad.

I knew what I was about to say would probably just fluster her more (not gonna lie, I was partly speaking to do that anyway, because she looked cute when she was so shy), but I said it anyway, because "That's great, Cocona! It's perfect for you!" and I sincerely believed that.

"Th-Thank you" she mumbled from behind her notebook, her voice quiet, when she finally stopped writing. A tiny smile formed on her face as she continued to speak, "I was inspired by you, Yayaka."

My heart skipped a beat. _I… inspired her? _

She continued to talk, "Because of all the stories I told you when we were kids, and all the games we played… We always had so much fun together, and when I told Papika about them, she said they were really good, and that I should share them with the world."

It stung a little to hear that the stories Cocona had told me one day, she'd told to Papika too… That they weren't just things that only the two of us shared, and that I wasn't the only inspiration behind her wanting to write stories... _**((I can change that… Just switch with me…)) **_Okay, it did more than just sting, it hit me kinda bad to hear that. _I want to be special to you… _I grabbed a stray fry from the table and shoved it in my mouth, trying to give my teeth something to work on, so I could try and get this growing negative feeling out of my system a little (probably looked a little weird, but oh well). However, despite my hurt, I managed a genuine smile when I said, "you should, Papika's right about that." _I just wish I'd been the one to give you the idea… _

I picked at the remains of my fries a lot more slowly after that, and eventually, me and Cocona had finished eating at the same time, and asked if any of us wanted desert. Yuyu denied the offer, and I said I'd think about it, where Papika and Cocona both got up to have a look and see what was available. I couldn't help but feel a pang of jealousy as I watched the two of them walk off. They weren't holding hands, or giving each other any form of physical contact otherwise, but… they just kinda gave of this air of 'closeness' about them. _A closeness with each other I can never have… _

"What do you think of those two together?" The question just sort of burst from my mouth. I don't even know why, the only other person here was Yuyu, and I doubted she'd really give me an answer. I was about to speak again, to talk out loud, maybe try and get Yuyu to forget I'd spoken at all, when I actually got a reply from her:

"Adorable."

I turned to her, my purple eyes meeting her red, completely stunned. I was kinda thankful she threw me off so much that it kicked me out of my negative mood, but all I could think is _what the hell is up with you?_ Even the way she was looking at me right now seemed… unusual for Yuyu. I don't know what the hell it was, but"You've been acting really weird lately…"

Yuyu blinked and looked away from me. _…I said that out loud, didn't I? Crap…_

"Sorry, I didn't mean—"

"Yayaka," Papika interrupted my apology, coming back over to the table "Cocona wants help with desert, she doesn't know what to choose"

"Oh for—" I almost cursed out loud, annoyed at Papika's sudden presence, and at myself for saying something that might have upset Yuyu. I took a second before replying "What the hell does she want my help with?"

"She wants cream bread, but wasn't sure what flavour to try. She wanted me to get you, so you could help her pick, because you know a lot" Papika said, with a nod at that last part, as if that was set in stone and could never be changed. _Well… maybe she wouldn't be wrong about that. I'm probably the right person to ask about cream bread… _

Man, I'm in a really weird mood today… But if Cocona's looking at cream bread, I may as well help her. She said she was fine with paying for food, I can probably get some myself. Maybe it'll help me feel better.

"…fine. I'll be back soon, Yuyu," I wasn't quite sure why I was telling Yuyu I'd be back; I got the feeling I came across a little menacing. _I need to apologise to her later. I'm probably acting just as weird as she is..._

I got to Cocona who was standing there, looking at all the deserts on display. "You're having trouble deciding?" I asked, as I took up the space next to her. She looked up at me, confused for a second, before nodding and turning her attention back to all the available sweets.

"They just all look so nice..." She said, "I'd be tempted for some of all of them. I think cream bread would be best, but I'm not sure which flavour to pick."

I found myself smirking, amused. I'd say I could understand how she felt, but I'd be happy with pretty much any cream bread on the planet. Although she was becoming more confident in her descisions, enough to choose what to do with her life, something as simple as what to have for desert was still a difficult descision for her to make. "Why not just get one of each? You can probably afford it."

"I thought about that, but I don't know what everyone's going to want to do. I'd rather choose one, that way I can save my money so everyone can have fun today."

That comment of hers turned my amused smirk into a genuine smile. Her consideration of others and her kindness were just one of the things I loved about her. A part of me wished she'd look at me as she said that, so I could lose myself in those warm brown eyes, but if she did... _**((Switch with me, and she can be yours...))**_ I wasn't sure I could say no to that offer...

_She can't be mine. She's chosen Papika, and I need to respect that. _

My smile died on my lips, and I forced myself to think about food and help Cocona with this descision. _How to narrow it down... _"Well, if you're thinking about trying some of the other deserts too, then they have to appeal to you for all different reasons, right? Are there any flavours there that stick out to you?"

Cocona thought about it for a while, her eyes flicking between fewer and fewer sweets each time, before she eventually stopped altogether and asked for a few pieces of almond cream bread.

"Some for all of us" she said, with a smile.

We returned with enough for one each, but when we did, I practically ended up eating mine whole (What? It was delicious). Yuyu passed her plate over to me with a quiet 'not hungry' and I polished that off pretty quickly too. I don't know if Papika could pick up on something or if she'd spoken to Yuyu while me and Cocona were looking at desert (I'd noticed she grinned when Yuyu passed me her food), and she ended up giving me about half of her cream bread too, which I ate more slowly, starting to feel pretty full. Cocona was about a third through her piece, before she passed me hers as well.

That was then that it hit me, "You chose cream bread on purpose."

"Papika said it looked like you hadn't eaten in a while, and when I saw you myself... I was worried." Cocona said, as she stared down at the table, getting embarrased "You ate your burger so quickly, I..."

I couldn't quite focus on her voice after that. _She did this for me. _Even now, after all this time, _**((After all your lies...))**_ I still found it hard to believe just how much she cared about me. _Oh Cocona... _"You softie," _how could I not fall for you?_ I took the last of her cream bread and ate it.

We sat there for a little while after, letting the food settle down in our stomachs, before we left.

* * *

I realised as we left the diner that we didn't really say where the heck we were gonna meet up with Toto and Nyunyu when we were done. _That was kinda dumb of me... _I just sorta assumed we'd just find them back at the school because they both seemed to engrossed in their bug hunt, but when we got to the school grounds, neither of them were there. The four of us split up to scan around the area, but there was no sign of them.

"Where the hell did they go?" I mumbled to myself as I climbed down from a tree. I thought I could get a better look of the surrounding area if I did that, and that it wouldn't be too hard to find them, as this time I wasn't looking for something that'd blend in directly with the grass below, but I didn't spot either of them, or Cocona, Papika or Yuyu as they searched too. "Did they end up in Pure Illusion somehow?" I thought about how the last time I was here, searching for Cocona's rabbit Uxekull that I saw Cocona and Papika emerge from a Hole, and they were talking in the grounds by the thinking man statue. _But what if Toto got sick again when he ended up there? _I started to get in a bit of a panic, thinking about it. _Oh man, why didn't I just designate a meeting place? If they've gone to Pure Illusion and they die there..._

"Found them!" Papika's voice rang over the tops of the trees. I breathed a sigh of relief, and tried to work out where the hell she'd called from, running in the general direction I'd heard her yell from. As I did, I saw Cocona dart out of some of the bushes, no doubt knowing exactly where Papika was. I followed her, and we both came across a barrier that you'd find at a train crossing, to stop the people walking across the tracks, which was balanced on top of a couple of traffic cones. _I've been here before... I took shelter under the leaves here in an alternate world Pure Illusion... the rain echoed and crashed, and I met a Cocona with long hair and Papika's personality... Cocoka..._

It was a little odd to see the real Cocona in this place with me this time. I thought I felt my face grow warm at the memory of Cocoka having hugged me in her sleep, and I ran a little faster, my feet hitting the ground harder, so I could focus on that, rather than let my thoughts stray and play with my imagination.

I never actually saw what was beyond the leafy tunnel I took shelter under, but I remember hearing a loud 'BANG' as Papika apparently worked on something in this exact area. Looking at the giant pipe sitting in the middle of a clearing, with an umbrella sticking out of a hole that rose a little in the middle of the pipe, I guess that explained what Papika was working on when she was in that world too. _That's how she got the body for the rocket... _How the hell she knew what to do with the rest of it though, I had no clue, maybe she knew how Pure Illusion worked better than any of us did, or maybe she had another Cocona there to help her build, but still, it explained where the thing came from at least.

Next to the pipe was a stack of full insect cages, with Toto carefully adding a final one to the top of the stack. Nyunyu was staring up at it, with no real expression on her face, but she was standing up a little straighter than I remember her doing so before. _Proud of her collection? _Well, that's what I'd guess, I was pretty amazed she managed to catch enough bugs to fill all the cages. The bugnets and bug hunting book were left on the grass at the bottom of the insect cage stack, Papika picked them up and put them in the pipe. I noticed Yuyu at the edge of the clearing at that point, staying as far away from the bugs as she could. _At least all of us are here now... _

"You can keep them here for now, I don't mind!" Papika was saying to Nyunyu, smiling, "It'll be nice to have some company!" _Have some company? _I looked at the large pipe again _...Is this where Papika lives? _

"Thank you," Toto said. "Will ask Salt when we return to Flip Flap."

"Man, you guys were pretty busy..." I said. I wasn't really sure how I felt about having a ton of insects in some random room in Flip Flap's base somewhere, but I had to admit, I was kinda impressed.

"We caught lots!" Nyunyu said, loudly. There wasn't really any... excitement in her voice or anything, but she seemed happy.

"I can see that. You guys have fun?"

"Fun!" Nyunyu parroted, raising her hand in the air. I found myself smiling at her. Again, there was no real expression behind the word, but despite that, I still seemed to know exactly what she was feeling. _She's definitely a strange one..._

"So, what now?" I asked, looking up at the sky. "We still seem to have some time left... Anything else you guys wanna do today?" I turned to Yuyu, who was still standing at the far edge of the clearing, but she shook her head. _How did she hear me from there? _I had a vague memory of her saying 'lip reading' to me a while ago as an explination for something... I'd guess she lip read me. _I still needed to ask her what she meant by that exactly... _

No one else in the group had a response to that either. I began to feel bad. _Is this really all they wanted to do? Look at a music shop and go bug hunting? Is... this enough for them? I knew this was a stupid idea, I don't know why I even bothered-_

"We could go to the arcade?"

Of all the people to suggest that, Cocona was the last person I really expected that from. Okay, looking back, it probably made sense that she was the only one who said that, as she's the only one beyond me who really knew what an arcade was, and that they existed, but still, "The arcade?" I could only question her. Apart from maybe visual novels or puzzle games, Cocona didn't strike me as one to play video games at all, all the games I played with her were things like tag, where you'd run around outside...

_No... There was one time... _I hfad a really vague memory of Cocona having borrowed a Playstation from one of her friends one day, and we sat down and played that for a little bit. There was a puzzle game (which Cocona was indeed pretty fond of, but not enough to want a games console herself) and a sports game... They were okay, I guess, I didn't really understand the fuss about them. She asked if she could borrow them so I could try them out, and I was disappointed ultimately.

_...But what else is there to do? _I was having fun, and I didn't want the day to end just yet. It'd suck to finally have a chance to be outside and see and explore this place and show the twins the world, only for them to do two damn things, one of which Yuyu hated... _Maybe an arcade will be different to just a regular Playstation though. I know their games are a lot more interactive than just having a controller in your hands... Toto would probably be interested, and Yuyu might like it too. I don't know about Nyunyu, but, _"why not?" _I guess... _

* * *

_Authors note: Would you believe me if I told you I hate burgers, going by how I described one earlier in the chapter? Because I really do, I've tried them and... they just don't appeal to me. And yet despite that, as I wrote that I got pretty tempted to try one again. Brains are weird._

_Okay... next weeks chapter-half contains stuff that had me smiling in the middle of town, and once burst out laughing for seemingly no reason when out for lunch with a friend. And yes, this 12k monstrosity IS just HALF of a chapter. I thought about just having events in the next one be chapter 5 but... I don't know, didn't seem right to me. Either way, when posted, I hope you enjoy it as much as I did coming up with it.  
_


	5. Chapter 4 - Part 2 (Arcade Afternoon)

I've never been in an arcade before, so I didn't know what to expect. We walked inside the doors and were welcomed with what looked like a million different video game cabinets. The building was pretty dark on the inside, but was alive with flashing lights and various noise, coming from all directions and angles. It felt a little familiar to me, despite never having really seen an arcade before, and I realised it was because the inside of this building wouldn't have looked out of place in Pops' world in Pure Illusion. Hell, if he was here with us right now, he'd probably be going nuts, marveling at all the machines. _Can living things that originate from Pure Illusion enter the real world? _If they could, that might explain where Uxekull came from, he's the only green rabbit in the world, as far as I know.

Nyunyu looked about ready to wander off and get lost in the sheer maze this place was, but I put a hand on the top of her head, stopping her before she could move. She looked at me, curious.

"Don't run off on your own in here. You'll get lost," I said to her. "Same goes for the rest of y-" so naturally Papika, whose face was lit up with wonder and excitement, grabbed Cocona's hand and ran off at that very instant.

I sighed and we all raced after them.

Okay, it was understandable why Papika was so eager to have a look around, there were so many sights to see in here, way more than in the art shop at least. Maybe even more than Pure Illusion... Well, I guess there's no telling how big Pure Illusion actually is, but if you can get coordinates from there, so in theory, you could map it out, but it wouldn't surprise me if it was just a constantly expanding endless dimension...

I thought I was gonna have to yell at myself to focus and keep an eye on those two, but it turned out not to be a problem. Although Papika was excited, she didn't run off too far. If anything, she got slower as she went, her glances at all the game machines around us becoming longer and longer, and eventually she stopped all together in the middle of a whole bunch of machines, and she was staring at one in particular, called 'House of the Dead'. At first, I thought it was because the images of the zombies and various monsters might have scared her, but she watched as game demo played and the crosshairs danced across the screen before tearing holes open in the zombies, blood spraying from the wounds.

"What's happening?" she asked, clueless. "The monsters are getting defeated, but there's no one to make it happen..."

"The screen is showing an example of what the video game is like when someone plays it. They try and make it look as fun as possible so people will want to spend money and play the game," Cocona explained. I wondered briefly if Papika even knew what a video game was.

"Nyunyu wants to try!" The child exclaimed; hand high in the air.

"Don't you find that scary, Nyunyu?" Cocona asked, concerned. She had to raise her voice to be heard over some of the music and the zombie's growls and moans from the game machine.

"Nope!" She said, approaching the machine and picking out one of the brightly coloured guns from the holders. It was attached to the machine by a thick metal cord, but that didn't stop Nyunyu from trying to spin around, and aim at the people in the arcade, rather than the monsters on the screen, and pulling the trigger. I walked up to her, put my hands on her shoulders and turned her around so she was facing the right way. _I definitely can't trust this kid with a real gun... _

"Don't do that, kiddo, it'll get you in trouble. Come on, I'll play with you," I said, taking a place next to the gun for player 2, and pulled the weapon out of the holder.

Cocona looked hesitant to put a coin in the machine. "Should she really let her play something like this?" she asked, concerned.

"If she's going to Pure Illusion, she needs to be ready," I said, pointing my gun at the screen. "This is probably the safest way to prepare her for any danger we could face there." Now I think about it, it's probably a good thing the zombies in the game didn't seem to bother her at all. I haven't run into anything like them at all on my adventures, but that didn't mean she wouldn't. "It's probably best she gets used to the idea of seeing and fighting strange things now, rather than in the middle of a life or death situation."

Cocona seemed uncertain for a little longer, before she nodded and inserted enough money to give us a couple of lives each. I told Nyunyu to keep her eyes on the screen, and to aim for the zombies. It was easy at first, the area we were in was a wide-open space, with hardly any obstacles. The few zombies that were there were pretty slow, and didn't pose much of a threat… But it wasn't long before the two of us were struggling. Nyunyu had a pretty decent aim, which I should have expected, but sometimes she shot the civilians that were under attack, and lost some health because of it. _If her metal ring has some kinda gun attachment, I'm getting the twins to remove it._

"Nyunyu, shoot the monsters!" I said, struggling to take down the horde in front of me. Thankfully, like every other time I gave orders, Nyunyu obeyed, and immediately went from shooting everything that moved, to only hitting the monsters (although her aim wasn't perfect, she still managed to get a person's head, instead of attacking the zombie about to eat them). My fingers were gripping the gun controller tightly, and I had to try and reload (flicking the controller downwards) at the right time, trying to make sure I wouldn't take a hit when I was exposed. It was a little cumbersome to do though, as the wire made the gun a little hard to handle, or at least the cable would shift slightly and it'd throw my aim off. I would have asked Nyunyu for help, but she'd just lost one of her lives and was only down to a few pieces of health. I ended up putting my other hand on the gun, to try and help my control over where I was aiming.

"Shoot the ones closest to you, they'll hurt you if you don't take them out," I said, trying to give her pointers, while desperately trying to take down the horde, which I _swear,_ targeted me a lot more than it did her. Despite all of that, it was still a while before I lost my first life, and that was just before getting to the first boss, which was a hollow suit of armour, and some kind of imp flying around behind it.

"Take out the imp! That's his weak spot!" Even though the game had just told us that exact thing, I wasn't sure Nyunyu would actually pay attention to that unless I gave her the order. _Might need to keep that in mind..._

We just about managed to take out the boss with only a couple pieces of health between us, and came to a crossroads. Before I could ask Nyunyu what she wanted to do, she shot one of the directions, and we were taken along that path, which turned out to be a bridge over some dark green water. Monsters that looked like a cross between alligators and zombies leapt out from the water, and roared at us, before charging at the screen. It wasn't long after that we lost our last lives, and 'GAME OVER' appeared on the screen, along with a countdown timer of 10 seconds if we wanted to continue out game.

"Man... That was tough..." I said, feeling a little tired from trying to keep track of so many things at once. _If this game had a grenade or a few I might be okay. How the hell does Toto do it...? _I turned to face Nyunyu, who'd surprisingly, put the gun back in its holder and was looking up at me.

"Good job!" I said, praising her for her first attempt at fighting something. It wasn't perfect, far from it, but everything takes time to learn, and although she attacked the people rather than the monsters, she got the hang of it eventually, and didn't do too badly. It was kinda fun playing with her.

"Good job!" she repeated back to me. She must have enjoyed herself too, I saw the corner of her lip twitch a fraction, until she had a miniscule half-smile on her face.

"Can I play?" Papika asked. Nyunyu turned to look at her, nodded, and stepped aside, allowing Papika to take her place. She picked up the colourful pistol with ease, and tried pointing it at the screen. The crosshairs didn't react to her movements at all, which I would have expected her to complain about, but she didn't seem bothered in the slightest. _Trying to get a feel for the weapon? _

"Want to try" Yuyu said, taking my spot, and I handed the gun over to her. It was a little awkward for her to take it from me, with her only having one hand available to use, (even then, my tight grip on the thing earlier made it a little difficult to remove, every finger that wasn't on the trigger was a little stiff), but managed to pass it over eventually. Although the gun was in Yuyu's good hand, it shook a little as she held it, just enough to send tiny shivers through the weapon.

Cocona put more coins in the machine, enough for two lives each, like earlier, and the game restarted. Once again, the zombies in the open space were no problem… for Papika at least. Maybe she'd memorised where they appeared from when me and Nyunyu played, but she took all of them out easily. Yuyu… was having trouble. It's probably because she was used to punching things, being made for close combat, rather than using ranged attacks, and the shake in her good hand didn't seem to help that either. She'd line up a shot fairly well, but the zombie would move just out of range before she could let the shot off. Thankfully, Papika was quite alert and helped Yuyu deal with her zombie problem…

Then when the swarm started to appear, Papika began to struggle a little. She aimed just fine, but she began to focus too much on the zombies attacking Yuyu rather than herself and started to lose health.

"This isn't working…" Papika mumbled.

"Difficult," Yuyu agreed. Her voice seemed a little bit strained, and it was a bit hard to tell with the lights all around the arcade flashing on and off, but I thought I saw Yuyu's hand tighten on the gun a little, which only made the shakes more violent. Yuyu managed to lose a life, despite hers and Papika's best efforts to keep her alive. It wasn't long before Papika lost one of hers either.

"I can do this!" Papika said, trying to pep herself up. She was standing still, but something about those words seemed to give her more energy, although maybe she was working herself up a little too much, as sweat began to bead on her forehead. She was taking out enemies on both sides, but she was still struggling. "I can do this. I need to protect Cocona!" I wasn't sure if I should be amazed with how seriously Papika was treating this situation. She was shooting furiously at the targets onscreen, but as hard as she was trying, it wasn't long before the two of them were getting overwhelmed.

The game became too much for Yuyu, and she had to lower her gun, not to reload, but to give her arm a break. Noticing this, Papika's attention went from the screen, to the gun Yuyu held, and she quickly reached across to take it from her. Yuyu moved the gun so Papika could reach it, and walked away from the machine, unable to play anymore.

"FLIP FLAPPING!" came Papika's war cry, and I knew if we were in Pure Illusion, there's no doubt she would have transformed right then and there. Being the real world, that didn't happen, but the effect here was almost as astonishing. Papika had gone from starting to struggle, only having one weapon to hand, to powering through the game solo. The boss me and Nyunyu managed to defeat before dying might as well have been a regular enemy for her, with how she aimed, taking out stray zombies, and managing to hit the imp pretty well too. She picked the opposite path to the one me and Nyunyu took, so instead of going over a bridge, she went through a stone doorway, into what looked like the courtyard of a castle, and began to take out any new monsters that appeared with no trouble. I was stunned. It took me a second to realise how the hell Papika was doing a lot better with two guns than one, when I made the connection. _She has two hand guns when she's transformed. This is what she's used to. _

After a while, she'd managed to blast her way through the second and third bosses. I leaned forwards a little, fascinated by Papika's skill. One of the characters died at some point after the third, and called to Cocona to put another life's worth of credit in the machine, so she'd have both weapons up and running again. Papika made it up to the fourth boss, before another character lost their life and turned to Cocona to ask for another one.

"No more after this!" Cocona said. I had no idea if Papika even heard her, the sweat that began as beads, started to drip as Papika became more lost in the game. The sheer concentration and focus in her eyes were almost enough to put holes in the screen where she glared, as if it would somehow help her add to her zombie kill count. Actually, I can guarantee you, if Papika indeed somehow managed to will a third crosshair into existence, everything on that screen would be dead, and the final boss probably would have fled from sheer terror if it could see her. Looking at Papika now, seeing those usually joyful blue eyes wishing death upon every monster in sight, made me pretty grateful she wasn't that hostile towards me whenever we ended up fighting over amorphous in Pure Illusion.

Papika made it to the last boss, when both of her characters were taken out in one fell swoop.

"Cocona!" Papika cried, as if it was a life or death emergency, as the 10 second timer ticked down. How her eyes went from 'I will murder your entire family' to 'innocent puppy' in an instant was kind of incredible. Her puppy-dog act really annoyed me when I first got to know her, but seeing her face now made me wish I hadn't bought the cream bread for myself earlier, so I could give her another try at the game, she was doing crazy well, and if she had another few lives I was _certain _she could beat the game. This is probably the most excited I've been about something in a _long _time. It was enthralling, and I wanted to see Papika beat the last boss.

"Cocona…" Papika's voice wavered, as she begged again, the timer ticking down to just 5 seconds left. Cocona tried to stare Papika down, not wanting to turn back on her word… but gave in, and put enough coins in for each character to have another life, just before it timed out entirely.

The smile that lit up Papika's face was contagious, and I found myself grinning as she got a second attempt at the last boss in the game. She only took four hits split over the two characters, before he went down.

"Yeeesss! I won!" She raised both guns in the air and jumped up on the spot, cheering. The guns pulled from her grasp a little, not meant to be able to go quite so high. She quickly realised this, and stuffed them back in the holders on the machine, before dancing around on the spot, celebrating her victory.

"Nice one!" I said, patting her on the shoulder. She was laughing as Toto and Nyunyu congratulated her too (with Nyunyu calling her 'Papika-onee-chan'). Cocona watched the scene from a distance away, with an adoring smile on her face. It wasn't long before Papika realised someone was missing from her little victory party, and she flung her arms around Cocona's shoulders as she kissed her on the cheek, causing Cocona to blush. Cocona turned to ask if Toto wanted to try playing too.

He shook his head. "Watched Papika's victory. Satisfying enough." Yuyu was standing next to him, staring at the ground, and I felt a little guilty at getting so captivated by Papika's game. _It started off with Yuyu playing too, and now she's just had to sit at the side and watch, losing her turn at the game she could have been a part of… _

I had a look around us, to see if there were any games in the area that she could play, and couldn't really spot anything. None of the others seemed to know where to go next either. Papika was still a little caught up in her victory, and still held Cocona in her arms. Toto and Nyunyu were both staring at me, as if awaiting orders… Yuyu however, seemed to have broken out of her mood, and was staring in the general direction of a bunch of fighting games.

"You wanna have a look, Yuyu?" I asked her. She blinked, maybe a little startled, but eventually nodded. Not really knowing what else to do, the others all came over to us and gathered around the fighting machines. There were a number of them available, _Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat, _and a few based on popular anime too… Not that I really knew anything about any of that, I've just heard the names a few times around school. I wasn't too sure why Yuyu wanted to have a look at these games, I mean it looked like using two hands was pretty much required to play. Maybe she was just drawn to them because a number of the characters were punching each other. None of them had any kind of powerfist like she does, but it was all I could guess.

Despite seemingly needing two hands it was apparent that Yuyu wanted to play. She looked at Cocona, and held out a hand. Cocona seemed confused as to what Yuyu wanted, so I explained she was asking for coins to try the fighting game.

"Are you sure you're going to play okay, Yuyu?" Cocona asked, her eyes trailing down to Yuyu's cast, voicing the concerns I had. Yuyu's mouth pulled back a little, as if the question annoyed her.

"Toto. Request assistance," she said.

"Will help Yuyu," he said, stepping forward. For a second my mind went back to when we were on separate sides in Pure Illusion, Asclepius verses Flip Flap, and thought about how if those two had said that back then, that it would have likely been meant as a threat towards Cocona and Papika. Thankfully, all being on the same side, I wouldn't need to worry about that being the case… probably. I still remember Yuyu with a sadistic smile on her face as she told Cocona the truth about me. _But we're all friends and allies now. Nothing like that will happen again… _I had another thought then, but this one amused me a little. _Well, if we ever wanted to see who could beat who in a fight, we could all play the fighting games here, rather than actually beating each other up like we could have done back in the day._

Yuyu's fingers twitched, silently asking for money again, and this time Cocona complied, handing some over.

We approached Yuyu's machine of choice, and she ducked down to put the coins in the slot. She had a little trouble because the cast of her arm bumped against the 'shelf' of the machine the controls were attached to. Standing up again, she had a look at the character select screen… and stared for quite a while, before looking down at the controls. She stood to the right, over where the attack buttons were. Toto took a place by her left, where the joystick was.

Yuyu just pressed a button to accept the character the cursor first highlighted, and then it booted up into a game right away. The background for the fight was an airport runway, just a long road stretching into the distance, with a few planes flying in the background up near the health bars. At the edges of the screen were crowds of people standing around with luggage, watching the two people in the middle and cheering. Pretty weird place to have a fight, and even weirder that there'd be people standing around and watching on an airport runway, when a plane could come down and squish them all at any time… But if you had a long wait for a flight and the only thing to entertain you for the next few hours, was watching a guy in a martial arts outfit (the character Yuyu ended up picking) fighting some weird dragon man, then I guess why not stand around and watch?

I wondered at first if the twins were gonna try and play the game without speaking a word out loud. That may well have been the case for a little while, Toto moved the character closer to the enemy, and Yuyu pressed a button to attack, which made the martial arts guy stab forward with a punch. The dragon dude took a hit, but quickly ducked down low, swiping out with its claws. Yuyu looked like she was about to attack again, maybe she'd spotted something she could take advantage of, but before she could really act, the dragon guy jumped over the martial artist, and kicked Yuyu's character in the head. Although they should have both been facing the same side of the screen (the right, as the dragon jumped left to attack Yuyu in the back), both characters ended up looking at each other, without any buttons being pressed. The fact the games did that made me wonder if Yuyu might have been okay to play the game without Toto after all…

"Right" Yuyu said. Her voice was quiet, but there was a force to it. Toto obeyed his sister's command, trying to get their fighter out of range, but it did no good. The dragon guy opened his mouth and a fireball shot out.

"Up!" Yuyu burst out, but it was already too late. Before Toto could move the character and jump out of range of the attack, the fireball hit, knocking the martial artist flat on his back. Toto could probably have dodged that easily, but I'd guess because he was meant to be playing as Yuyu's left hand, rather than acting out himself, he waited for her order before moving.

While I had that thought, the dragon approached, claws outstretched, before it leapt up into a jump kick. Yuyu tried slamming the palm of her hand down on the action buttons, but nothing woke the twin's character up in time, and they took a lot of damage from the dragon's attack.

"Defective…" Yuyu mumbled. It'd sounded like she'd given up already, and going by her half-hearted attempt at tapping buttons, that pretty much summed up her mood, despite her face being as blank as ever.

Even with the twins' bond, it wasn't enough for them to cooperate and defeat the opponent.

Both of them stepped away from the machine, when their character lost, and all of a sudden, the machine yelled 'Round Two… Fight!' Toto turned back, curious, but didn't get any closer to the machine. Yuyu didn't even bother looking back. I stood around, not quite sure what to do for a second, and the dragon guy on the screen started to beat the crap out of the martial artist. I felt kinda bad for Yuyu not being able to play the game she wanted to, but there wasn't really much any of us could do about that…

And it made me mad.

I wasn't entirely sure what at, maybe I was mad forYuyu, annoyed that she only had one arm that she could use normally, and that she couldn't play the piano earlier, had to drop her gun during House of the Dead, and now she couldn't beat this stupid dragon guy either. _The few things she's wanted to do today, and she hasn't been able to enjoy any of them…_

All I know is, that I ended up approaching the machine, with my newfound fury, and just before the dragon beat the martial artist down to a third of his health bar, I just about managed to move him out of the way, and pressed one of the attack buttons, which turned out to be a kick.

I had no idea what I was doing, but I wanted nothing more at this moment than to beat this stupid computer character up. Buttons were pressed randomly, resulting in the martial arts guy almost doing some kind of war dance. I think I accidentally did a special move, because after a little charging up animation, he ended up shooting lightning at the dragon at one point. The attack fanned out in a blast which was pretty much a guaranteed hit. It didn't do much damage, something like that would potentially be game-breaking if that was the case, and even then, I couldn't remember the sequence I'd pressed at all, so I couldn't do it again.

The fight between the martial arts guy and the dragon ended up being pretty close. I took a couple of slashes to the face, and managed to hop over the tail that swung at me, and then managed to catch the dragon with a few attacks of my own, a punch and a kick. _If this martial artist guy was trying to survive in Pure Illusion, he'd tire himself out really quickly with this sort of fighting… _I know I was the one controlling him, and making him do all of these moves in the first place, but I couldn't help thinking that as I played.

It came down to both character's last bits of health, so any hit taken would have resulted in instant death. Probably not the smart thing to do, but I charged forward, and managed to end up performing another special move, but this one was a flaming uppercut. It looked cool, sure, and I wished I could remember how to do that again, but it was no good. The attack was too slow, and by the time the animation had finished, the dragon guy had already snuck up behind the martial artist again, and lunged forward in a bite. Maybe it was because it was the second-round victory, but a special winning animation for the dragon guy played, of it ripping off the martial artist's head, blood pouring in a stream from the neck, and flinging it away of screen. If it was real life, the people in the crowed at the airport would have started running and screaming from the monster that'd just decapitated its human opponent, but being a game, they seemed pretty unphased and continued to cheer blindly for the dragon.

"Damnit!" I stomped in annoyance, having come so close to winning that round and losing at the last second. _Calm down, Yayaka. Don't get mad here. _I took a deep breath, and turned to face the others.

Toto was glaring at the screen, looking a bit like he wanted revenge against the dragon guy for upsetting his sister. Surprisingly, he didn't step up to the machine next. Someone did, and it was the last person I was expecting.

Maybe Cocona was feeling protective of her newfound twin siblings, and that was why she was the one putting the coins in the machine and picking the same character, or maybe she was just getting caught up in the atmosphere of the arcade. All I know is, when the game loaded, and put her against that dragon character again, that she showed no mercy.

She must've been studying both of our matches, because she actually seemed to have a plan for how to go about the fight. It was far from perfect, she took a number of hits, and got a little flustered during the battle, but she'd managed to pull off both of the special moves I did multiple times, and managed to win against the dragon in the first round.

The second round however didn't go as well. It seemed a bit like the dragon character got pissed at Cocona for defeating him, and didn't waste any time. The moment the game said 'Round two… Fight!' the dragon charged the martial artist in a shoulder bash, slamming him against the edge of the screen. Cocona was too shocked by the suddenness of it to do anything. Her fingers hovered over the attack buttons on the arcade console, shakily, thrown off by the sudden action.

"Cocona!" Papika called. It wasn't all that loud, but hearing Papika's voice seemed to snap Cocona out of it. Cocona gasped, becoming alert again, blinked, and retaliated. She managed to use a counter attack, grabbing the dragon, who'd gone in again to swipe with his claws, and the martial artist threw him over his shoulder. As the dragon got up, Cocona made the martial artist lash out with a low kick, before going straight in to the flaming uppercut, winning the fight. Much like how when the dragon won both the rounds last time, the game played a special animation for the martial artist's two wins, and the dragon burst into flames upon Cocona's hit coming into contact with it. Cocona stared in disbelief at the screen, either at the sight of the opponent becoming a pile of ash on the ground, which was blown away by a gust of breeze, or unable to believe she won.

Papika smiled, proud of Cocona, and Toto congratulated her with a 'well done'. When Cocona returned to the group, she was met with Nyunyu holding her hand out. It took a second for Cocona to remember what that meant, before handing the kid a few coins.

"Hold up, Nyunyu! I want to play!" Papika said, going over to join her. Nyunyu put some coins in her half of the machine, before handing them to Papika, who did the same. Both of them ended up picking completely different characters this time, Nyunyu choosing a yellow robot, that made me think a little of Buu, and Papika kept flicking between two characters for a little while, before finally settling on one, a guy with a thin sword, that looked like it was made for stabbing rather than slashing.

"A fencer?" Cocona asked, curious. "I thought you'd pick the one with the guns."

"I wanted to," Papika said, "But you fight with a sword, Cocona, and I wanted to see what it was like."

I was about to tell Papika that playing that game was nothing like fighting with a real close combat weapon, but I wasn't sure there was much point. She'd probably work that one out herself soon enough.

I wasn't really paying attention to the background when Cocona was fighting the dragon, but I'm pretty sure the background the game picked for Nyunyu and Papika was different to the one she had. Now the combatants were fighting in… what looked like a shark tunnel in an aquarium. Yuyu looked away from the screen. I wasn't sure if it was because she had to watch more people enjoying a game she couldn't, or because she'd almost drowned once, trapped beneath the surface of a frozen lake. Either way, she didn't seem too happy about it, and I felt bad.

_I want this to be a day where everyone can have fun… _

_We need to find games Yuyu can play. _

I had a look around, and saw a depressing number of games that look like they needed two hands available to be enjoyed properly… _Come on, there has to be something here…_

"Not fair!" Papika yelled. I found myself turning to look and see what'd happened, and saw Nyunyu's robot character prancing around the screen, having won the first round.

"I'm gonna get you this time!" She said, speaking over the game announcer's declaration of the second round of combat having begun. Nyunyu's robot punched towards Papika's fencer, with a fist that sprung from one of its short arms, but Papika was already in the air, and dodged the attack. She'd landed behind Yuyu's robot, and pressed a button, sending her character lunging forward with their sword… And that was about the only move I bet Papika had planned out, because after that, her hands just sorta flopped around on the console like a dying fish (which might have almost been an appropriate description considering the arena the game had picked for them), as she mashed buttons, trying to defeat Nyunyu. Nyunyu's attacks seemed like they were planned out, but I guess in the end Papika's unpredictability lead to her winning over Nyunyu's robot that time.

With one victory each though, instead of going straight into a third round, the background Papika and Nyunyu were fighting against changed. A number of pillars erupted from the sandy ground in the game, lifting Papika's fencer and Nyunyu's robot into the air. The screen faded to black, before the both of them were on a platform that looked a bit like an old Roman coliseum sliced in half. Maybe Yuyu was still paying attention to the game after all, as she ended up watching the final round alongside the rest of us. Part of me felt a little relieved, as that suggested it _was _in fact the underwater battleground that bothered her, but I still felt kinda bad about Yuyu not being able to play the fighting game properly. _I'll find things she can play in here. _

For the moment though…

"Final round… FIGHT!" The machine announced.

Much like before, Papika started off with a direct attack, but I'd guess Nyunyu must have learnt from last time that Papika would try that exact thing. She managed to direct her robot into throwing Papika's fencer over its shoulder, and then wasted to time sending the robot into a couple of low kicks, making Papika take damage before her character could even recover. In Papika's button mashing, she somehow activated a special attack, which sent a beam of light from the fencer's sword shooting across the screen. Looked like it would've been a handy attack to have, but by the time Papika had used it, Nyunyu's robot was pretty much above the fencer, and slammed down into a solid hit that actually made me wince. Having a who-knows-how-heavy robot slam on your back like that, if it didn't break your spine, would probably leave permanent damage, and damn well hurt, in the very least.

Somehow, I guess through game logic, Papika's fencer stood back up after taking the hit, and she managed to stab Nyunyu's robot in the face with a lunge...

And that was the last hit Papika got.

I don't know what it was, but after that, no matter how hard she tried, Papika just couldn't touch Nyunyu's robot. Her attacks were just a _little _too far away to land, but the spring-loaded fists of Nyunyu's robot didn't have a problem smacking Papika's fencer in the face. That turned out to be the move that won the fight, and a special animation played of the robot's fist leaving its arms, and sending the fencer's head flying off-screen.

Papika folded her arms and her cheeks puffed up with annoyance, as the game declared Nyunyu the winner. It wasn't too long until she perked up again though, and congratulated the kid on her victory, along with everyone else, but Yuyu. Although she'd ended up watching the final match between Nyunyu and Papika, there wasn't really any signs of… well, anything from her. Even though she looked pretty neutral, I'd wonder if watching them play another game she couldn't bothered her.

_There's got to be something around that Yuyu can play… _

There was one game nearby that looked like it'd be fine for her. Two people were standing at either end of a table, and were using circular plastic pieces (strikers) to try and force a puck into the other person's goal. It didn't look like it'd be quite as chaotic as House of the Dead, or a fighting game, and the people that were playing were both only using one arm. It might not be too exciting, but it was a game Yuyu could play at least.

"We could give this one a try," I suggested, as I moved over to a free table.

"Air hockey?" Cocona asked.

"Yeah. There's two strikers for each end of the table, so we can play in pairs if-"

"I choose Cocona!" Papika declared, taking one of Cocona's hands in her own, and raising her other into the air like Nyunyu would. Toto and Yuyu were also pretty quick to pick up on the idea, and turned to each other and nodded. I looked at Nyunyu.

"Looks like it's you and me again, kiddo. You reckon we can beat these guys?"

"Easy!" Nyunyu said.

* * *

It was not easy.

Cocona and Papika went up first, against the twins. There were two minutes on the timer, and the puck fell into the Flip Flapper's end first (I know we're all technically a part of Flip Flap now, but I'm just gonna call Cocona and Papika that as it'll be easier to keep track of teams that way). Papika's arm thrust out in a sudden strike that would have caught anyone off guard...

Anyone but Toto.

Thanks to his heightened processing speed, he anticipated the move, and had already moved himself to defend his and Yuyu's goal. The puck bumped off his striker at an angle, still moving pretty quickly, which Cocona just about managed to block, having to reach halfway across the table to do so (Papika didn't move, probably convinced her first hit would have been a perfect shot, and could only stand, bewildered, when it was deflected).

Yuyu saw the incoming puck and lashed her arm out to try and block it. She managed, successfully, and Toto was quick enough to move to bring it back to the twins' side of the table before Papika could claim it for the Flip Flappers. He put his free hand up to his left eye, and it twitched. His lips pulled backwards a little in a wince, as his hand went back to his side, in a motion that appeared a lot... 'heavier' than how either of the twins would normally move. _He can defend, but he can't aim…_ Yuyu seemed to have picked up on this, and quickly swept her striker over the play area back and forth, giving no indication when she'd lash out.

When she did though, it was a direct hit. Cocona and Papika were prepared for an attack, and they both swiped their strikers to the side, in an attempt to catch her attack and send it harmlessly into the walls of the table, but no luck, Papika was too fast and Cocona was too slow.

One point for the twins.

The Flip Flapper's didn't let that defeat them though. Much like before, when she played House of the Dead, Papika's gaze became focused and a determined smile pulled at her mouth.

"Cocona!" All she had to do was say Cocona's name, and Cocona made her move. Although I had a powerful bond with Papika, and a connection to Cocona, it'd been quite a while since I felt their part of it together alongside mine. Much like when we piloted the mecha in Pops' world and in the fight against Yamimi, the bond between the two of them was powerful. Unbreakable. Just like both of those times, they began to move as if they'd planned all of this out. Not a word was spoken between them, but they both somehow knew what the other was doing, and they tried to cover each other's strengths and weaknesses.

Cocona tried to attack the twin's goal this time, and she came close to a successful hit, but Toto had just managed to stop it at the last second. Like before, Yuyu tried to make up for Toto's lack of aiming and tried again to get to the Flip Flapper's goal.

Standing there, watching them, mine and Nyunyu's heads were going from side to side, as if we were watching a tennis match, watching the puck bounce from end to end.

As hard as the Flip Flappers tried though, and as strong as their bond was, they just couldn't get past Toto's defense. Yuyu had managed to score another couple of hits before the timer buzzed. A tiny smirk appeared on the Toto's face, and the twins high-fived.

Cocona was grinning at the sight, "That was pretty fun" she said.

"Yeah it was!" Papika agreed, smiling despite her team's loss. She turned to me and Nyunyu, and said "beat them for us!" before stepping away from the table.

"You ready, Nyunyu?" I said, taking up the spot that was just vacated.

"Ready!" she said, taking up the striker that'd been used by Papika. I took Cocona's.

Cocona got the game started again, putting another two minutes on the clock.

I was hoping that by having watched the twins for the last match and observing their tactics that me and Nyunyu might have stood a chance. I was pretty sure, much like every other time, that Nyunyu didn't blink once during the whole match (I began to wonder if Asclepius made her for a purpose, like how Yuyu was the close combatant, and Toto was the medic/support unit, that Nyunyu was made for observation purposes.)

Either way, our match started almost identically to the way the twins against the Flip Flapper's did, with the puck falling into our end and Nyunyu using as much force as she could muster to try and get an instant goal. Toto blocked it without a problem, and returned the puck with as much power as Nyunyu did, only this time, he _did _get a goal against us (although I was fast, I couldn't quite work out when to move, and managed to over-shoot. Nyunyu, as the shortest of the group, what with being a kid, had a little difficulty reaching across to the middle of the table, and couldn't quite defend).

"Nyunyu, get to the back of the table, near the goal, and play defensive," I said. _If she can't reach the middle standing at the edges, then that'd be the best place for her on this battlefield._ I didn't really like giving my orders out loud, as it meant the twins would know what I was doing, but I had no way to communicate with her silently. Even if I could, they probably would have figured out what I was planning, after all, we've fought together as a team in Pure Illusion for a long time.

With Toto and Nyunyu near the goals, playing defensive, the match ended up being more me against Yuyu, both of us playing offense and trying to catch the other off guard. I wasn't sure if it's because Yuyu's arm was getting tired or something, but her attacks didn't quite seem as enthusiastic against me, like they were against the Flip Flappers. She still managed to score a few goals against the two of us (although Nyunyu was at the back near the goal, a couple of times it looked like she was trying to copy what she saw from the last game that was played, so the goal was open a couple of times).

Yuyu took advantage of this fact, so even though she seemed to be getting a little worn out, it didn't affect her too much. Much like earlier how Papika and Cocona covered each other, the twins worked perfectly together. Toto tried a few attacks himself, but they seemed... half-hearted, for want of a better phrase. I've seen him aim perfectly in the past, but here, he just seemed to be a little lost, just seemingly randomly attacking, rather than taking heavily calculated shots. Remembering his hand going to the empty air where his eyepiece should have been, throughout the day, I began to wonder just how much he relied on it...

As time passed, Nyunyu became better and better at defending the goal, so I'd guess she was learning how to play, or maybe coming up with her own strategies for dealing with the twin's play style. Eventually, it got to the point that even though the twins had already scored more goals against us than we could hope to counter (well, to be fair, even though Toto didn't have his eyepiece, his striker might as well have been a brick wall, we'd lost from their very first goal) we were still pretty damn determined to give the game our best shot.

As hard as we tried though, we ended up losing to them by a few points more than the Flip Flappers did…

When it came to me and Nyunyu against the Flip Flappers though... that's when the competition got _really_ fierce.

The twins stood away from the table, and Cocona and Papika took their place. Neither of us could beat the twins, but there was still a chance we could beat the each other.

"For second place?" Cocona asked. Although she smiled, her voice didn't quite hold the enthusiasm for the game that was written all over Papika's face, but Cocona still seemed to have an air of excitement to her.

"For second place," I said.

Cocona put coins in the machine to get the game started. From the moment the counter displayed two minutes... I don't even quite know how to describe it. If you stepped within the area we were playing in, you would have been smacked in the face with this huge aura of _competition._

This time, when the puck came out of the machine, it favoured the Flip Flapper's (previously, twin's) side of the table, and Cocona wasted no time, in whisking away the puck, far from mine and Nyunyu's end of the table. When it was safely out of range of us, Cocona had just about enough time to move her hand out of the way, before Papika smacked it as hard as she could in an attempt to get the first goal of the game.

I was quick enough to catch the incoming attack, but it wasn't quite enough to stop it getting closer to the goal than I would have liked. Nyunyu though, definitely having improved since the first game we played, managed to clip the puck with her striker, just about keeping it away from our goal...

And then she let off an attack of her own.

My jaw actually dropped, when the kid had managed to get a solid hit on the puck, and made it past Cocona and Papika, and scored the first goal for our team.

"Crapping hell..." I couldn't keep myself from cursing, I was just so surprised. "Nice one, Nyunyu!"

"Celebrate while you can, Yayaka..." "...We won't lose!" Papika started and Cocona ended, the bond between them flaring up.

Once again, when the game gave us another puck, it favoured Cocona and Papika, who promptly tried to even the scores. As hard as they tried though, they were really struggling to get past Nyunyu. It was kind of amazing just how much she'd improved in such a short time, going from sort of drifting her striker around a little aimlessly, to almost becoming as solid a defense as Toto.

Almost.

Although she was getting better, it wasn't quite enough to counter one of Cocona's attacks. She'd managed to bounce the puck off the walls carefully, just enough to throw Nyunyu off enough to get a goal.

The Flip Flappers quickly cheered, before turning their attention to the game, just as the puck got into my hands... although they got back to the game quickly, maybe they'd gotten a little cocky in that victory. Papika fumbled her defense and we got another goal in.

Papika was not happy about that.

Suddenly, the pink-haired girl became a lot more intense, and her blue eyes began to burn with a fury that I didn't know she was capable of. The new puck drifted lazily to the Flip Flapper's half of the field and Papika slammed her striker down on top of it, to keep it from moving. The force almost sent shockwaves through the table.

"Now you've done it..." Her voice was quiet, but the anger it held was unrestrained. It was... unsettling.

"Papika?" Cocona sounded worried. She took a step back, as if she was frightened of the pink-haired girl, herself.

"FLIP... _FLAPPING_!" Papika bellowed her war cry, and withdrew the striker from the puck, before putting it back on the table and ramming it forwards. Neither me or Nyunyu could move to defend our goal. The puck had darted across the table in maybe a second flat, there was no time to move.

We were even now. The air of competition surrounding our table began to give way to tension. I could feel it in my hands and in my teeth. Even Nyunyu seemed a little different with the change in atmosphere.

The new puck spat out of the machine over to our end of the table.

_Fine... if that's how Papika wants it..._

"Flip... FLAPPING!" I yelled, as loudly as I could, as if that would give me more power behind my next attack. It honestly felt like it did, but Cocona managed to smack the puck out of the way of hers' and Papika's goal, just about, when I was certain my speed would have stopped such a thing happening.

Apparently not.

And apparently, although scared earlier, Cocona was starting to lose herself to the madness too.

"Flip... Flapping!" She cried, as she sent the puck shooting back towards us.

"Flip flapping!" Nyunyu echoed, catching Cocona's attack, and sending it back.

You know, I think I heard the two-minute timer buzz at some point, but I could barely hear it over the blood roaring in my ears. Even though the air from the table died down, and the puck refused to move even a quarter as well as it was a few seconds ago, and the goals had both been blocked, we were still smacking the damn thing around for a long time. I don't even know why any more, I guess we were just so caught up, we didn't even realise it was over until the four of us were panting, worn out from yelling and trying to force the damn thing to the other person's end.

If Toto and Yuyu thought we were acting weird, they gave no indication, and both just stared blankly, as me, Cocona and Papika fell about the place laughing, at how caught up in the game we got, and how ridiculous we probably looked playing.

I didn't care though. This is a day when I get to play and laugh with my friends, and if we all looked like idiots, then we looked like idiots.

It was a while before we calmed down enough to have another look around the arcade and find the next game we could play.

* * *

My eyes ended up falling on a dance machine next… You know the ones, there was platform at the base of them, where there were a bunch of directional arrows, and you had to try and stomp on them at the right time, following the directions that scrolled up along the screen. There were a few dance machines all in a row, one of them was occupied, and the people dancing… one of them seemed like they were doing okay, maybe their movements were a little slow, but the machine was giving them 'good's for all their moves, so they can't have been that bad… The person next to them though was a different case entirely. They just sort of seemed to be flailing madly on the spot, trying desperately to keep up with the instructions the machine kept spitting out. It looked chaotic, but you only needed to use your feet for that game, no arms needed. _Another game Yuyu could play._

"Why don't we give that a go?" I asked pointing to the row of dance machines. All at once, the amorphous kids' heads tilted to the side as they stared. Toto's head went back to normal not long after, as did Nyunyu's, I'd guess both watching intently, whereas Yuyu still seemed to express a little confusion.

Papika, seemed rather fond of the idea, "That looks like fun! Let's go, Cocona!"

"W-wait! Papika!" Cocona looked like she was about to protest, but Papika paid no attention to it, probably way too close to the machines now to have heard her, even if she shouted. Cocona sighed, and followed the wild pink-haired girl over to the machines, along with the rest of us.

By the time we got there, Papika was already on one of the dance platforms, wiggling where she stood, as if she were an exctied dog that had just seen their owner after a long time apart. _Man, she's super excited for this._

"Cocona! Play with me!" Papika's eyes sparkled as she looked at her girlfriend, eager to get going. Cocona looked a little embarrassed to start with, seeing Papika acting like that, but it wasn't long before a chuckle worked its way out her throat, and she held her hand out for Papika to take. Papika smiled as she did so, and carefully pulled Cocona up on to the platform next to her. It was a little strange to see her acting like that, but I found myself grinning (and I admit, pretty jealous) as I watched them.

"What song do you want?" Cocona asked, after putting the coins in the machine.

"I don't know, just pick one!" Papika said. She was standing still now, but was still moving, bouncing on her heels, ready to go.

"Okay," Cocona said. She scrolled through the songs for a while. I wondered if she was choosing one she knew, or if she was just going by the names of the songs and hoping it was something she liked. It was a little while before Cocona finally settled on one, and music began to play. It was just a generic pop song, not too energetic…

Well, not too energetic to be listening to at least. The arrows on the dance machine seemed to have other ideas.

It wasn't long before Cocona was doing a pretty accurate impression of the poor person earlier, who was just flailing frantically. I honestly thought Papika would be doing better than her, and she was… but not by too much. She was quick on her feet, I partly wondered if the fact she never wore shoes helped her in this situation, but she was still thrashing around, in an attempt to keep up with the seemingly endless stream of arrows.

As the game went along though, Papika seemed to pick up a rhythm and eventually her performance went from 'confused thrashing' to passable, and she started to laugh as she danced, enjoying herself. Cocona still seemed kind of lost for how to move around, and she only really got into it, just as the song ended. She stared up at the screen, disappointed, and put another few coins in, ready to try again. She went through the songs again, debating which one to pick, when Papika pointed to one and said "Put that one on, Cocona! I like the name!"

Cocona looked at the pink-haired girl, and nodded, before doing as she was asked.

This song, much like the other one, wasn't too energetic, although the arrows on the screen seemed to be going at a slower pace, and easier to keep track of. Cocona didn't struggle half as much as this one, which she seemed pretty happy about. At one point, she even ended up giggling while she was dancing, enjoying herself a lot more than she probably thought she would, having gotten over her initial hesitance.

"That was pretty fun!" Cocona exclaimed, when the song finally ended, managing to speak around her laughter.

"You guys should give it a go!" Papika said, taking Cocona's hand, and leading her back down to the group.

I figured I'd step up next, as I was the one who pointed the machine out in the first place. That, and I admit I was a little curious about it myself. I remember fighting Papika in the clock tower of the yuri-hell-school, and I was using my speed booster to zip around the place. I thought to myself then, if that's how ballet dancers felt, maybe I should give ballet a go. Well, that idea's kind of gone out of my mind until now, but still, I could give this kind of dancing a try. I'm pretty fast, I reckon I'll be okay at it.

I was about to ask Cocona for some coins, so I could get to dancing right away, but for all the activities we've tried here so far, everyone's been in pairs, and it felt kinda weird standing up here on my own. _Even then, I pointed these things out because they were a thing someone else would be able to try… _

"Hey, Yuyu, get up here," I said, calling to the silver-haired girl. Her red eyes looked up at me, mostly blank, but with a hint of curiosity. Her good arm was resting on her cast. _Is she worried about that? _

"It's okay, Yuyu, you don't need to use your arms for this one at all," I held out my hand to her, trying to invite her up to the platform next to me.

She blinked up at me, a little confused, before taking a slow step forward, and another, and then reaching out for my hand. I helped tug her up onto the dance platform (it was slightly raised), and then I turned to Cocona, to ask for a couple of coins. She placed them in the palm of my hand, and I wrapped my fingers around them. I felt a little twinge in the bond between me and Papika, and I turned to the blue-eyed girl to see her smiling at me as if she knew something. _She must've worked out I've been trying to find games Yuyu could play… _I felt a little embarrassed, and thought I felt my face heat up a little, so I quickly turned around and went back to the dance machine.

I put the coins in the slot, and scrolled through the list of songs. Nothing I recognised, but even then, my music knowledge was extremely limited, to the few scraps of lyrics I heard on the radio once or twice and the few CDs Cocona's played while I was at her house, so chances of me seeing something I knew would have been pretty astronomical. As I had a flick through the list though, I noticed something I don't think Cocona or Papika did: tucked away in the bottom right corner of the screen was a 'difficulty' rating. Curious, I hovered over the two songs the Flip Flappers hand danced to, and saw they were only three stars of five in terms of difficulty. _So, about average then… _I was tempted to pick another song that was three-star difficulty too, but decided against it._ Although I might be up to try that, I should probably pick something a little easier. Yuyu might be built for close combat, and able to spot a weak point from a mile away, but she might struggle to keep her balance, not being able to move the arm in the cast at all._

I went for something that had a two-star difficulty rating, as I figured that would be some kind of middle ground for the both of us. The song started up, and it was pretty slow, but that didn't stop my heart rate from spiking when I saw the arrows pop up on the screen. Not as many as Cocona and Papika had to deal with, but it still looked like a threatening amount. I felt a little surrounded. _Why the hell did I choose this? What was I thinking?_

My initial panic probably showed as I stepped forwards twice, following the directions, but then came a 'left' and felt my foot slip, almost causing me to fall over. _Maybe Papika was on to something, not wearing shoes on here… _I managed to correct myself though and missed a step to the right. "Tch…" _I can do better than this. I know I can!_

Despite that early setback, and seeing how Cocona and Papika struggled pretty bad to start with, I settled in to the beat quite quickly. My heart was still pounding a little fast, but it was more because I was doing exercise now, rather than because I was worried or embarrassed about being on display like this.

I snuck a quick glance at Yuyu while I had a break in the song, and saw she was carefully watching the screen, trying to register which arrow was next. She didn't seem to be struggling like I thought she would. Although the arrows were fairly spread out, beyond falling short once or twice (not quite stepping onto the arrow on the platform enough for the game to record it), she didn't have a problem stepping in time to the music at all, and was moving pretty smoothly. Her face was blank, expressing no emotion. _Is she okay with this? Should I have called her up here in the first place? _At that last thought, her red eyes flicked to mine, as if she knew what I was just thinking. Once again, like I had a couple of times before, I wondered if she or Toto could read minds. Well, if she could, she didn't answer my question with a reaction of any sort. In fact, the only response I got from her was that she looked at my screen, then back to me, nodded, and returned her attention to the game in front of her.

I looked back at my game and realised I must have spent longer looking at her than I thought. I'd gone from doing pretty well, to being welcomed with a string of 'miss!' pasted all over the screen. I cursed, and tried to recover. _Why the hell am I putting so much effort into this? _

About thirty seconds later, the song ended. I was kinda glad it didn't show up with a graph or anything, showing how well you did, as mine would have gone from a steady plateau to completely tanking, before jerking back up into a little mountain range. I turned back to face the others, feeling flustered, although not really knowing why. I wanted to demand 'what the hell are you looking at?' to everyone watching… wait a second, there's a couple more people around the dance machines now. _Is something going on here?_

The instant the song was over, Yuyu did a 180 and walked over to where the others were standing. It was a little while before I joined them. Cocona seemed a little uneasy at the crowd that'd gathered, as did Toto. I thought I saw him glance quickly at someone in the crowd, before he stepped forward. It was then that I realised that all of them were wearing the same school uniforms as Toto and Yuyu. _Classmates? _I suddenly felt a little worried for them. _They've probably never seen them at a place like this… or at all outside really. _My hands tightened into fists at my side, as I heard them all whispering amongst each other. _If anyone at their school makes fun of the twins for this, I'm borrowing Yuyu's gauntlet, and hunting them down._

"Want to try," Toto said, a little more hurried than he usually spoke. _The heck is up with him? _I thought with all the people around, he'd want to get out of here as soon as possible, especially if he knew them, but if anything, it seemed to motivate him further.

"Me too!" Nyunyu said, completely unaffected by all the strangers. She held her hand out to Cocona, who gave her a few coins, and then rushed over to the machine. Before anyone else could say anything, Nyunyu went through all the songs and picked one. I just about managed to catch the five-star difficulty rating in the bottom right corner, before the screen changed, the music started blasting and a flood of arrows appeared.

_Holy frag…_

It didn't look like there was a single gap on the screen at all, or if there was, it was barely an inch long, as if the game expected you to move from one direction to another instantly, but with maybe just a _tiny_ little break to throw you off-beat.

_Nyunyu, what the crapping hell were you thinking?_

I had no idea what she was thinking, and I'd never find out. Hell, I'd be surprised if I even remembered that was a thought I ever had at all…

Because the very second Toto and Nyunyu moved…

Everyone was shocked into silence.

All you could hear was the song (the beat of which made me wonder if some poor person had chugged every soda, cup of coffee, and every single grain of sugar on the planet, and then just started pressing buttons randomly), and everyone breathing.

Every single step Toto and Nyunyu took was smooth, as if they'd planned for this exact moment their entire lives. Neither of them missed a single step, and every single arrow they hit made the screen flash gold in places with 'perfect!' all over. Hell, it appeared so much, I was surprised it didn't throw them off at all, I'm pretty sure any regular person would have been…

_But they're not regular people. _

Toto, the red-eyed boy was made from amorphous, was made to process and take into account thousands of objects at once. The sheer amount of 'perfects' began to block the arrows on the screen at points, but Toto had already noted exactly where each arrow was, and exactly where it would be, and would know what time he'd have to move. Hell, if he was facing away from the screen, and only had a reflection in front of him to try and dance to, that probably wouldn't have thrown him off in the slightest. If we ever came back here, I'd be tempted to bring a mirror with me, to see if that would be the case.

I have no idea how Nyunyu was keeping up with all of this. Maybe, if my guess that she was made for observation was correct, and the fact she improved at the air hockey the more she played (and fast), she was made to learn quickly too. _Incredibly _quickly, if her strings of 'perfect!' and 'great!' were anything to go by (her timing wasn't quite as good as Toto's, but still, the fact she _successfully _hit the arrows on the screen was pretty damn amazing).

"Go Toto!" a girl in the crowd yelled. I turned my head a little, not quite wanting to turn away from the insane spectacle before us, but wanting to know who spoke. I noted it came from the vauge direction Toto looked in earlier, before he volunteered to step up and dance. After hearing that one person though, it wasn't long before all the people in the crowd had joined in cheering him on, punching the air, and just shouting in general.

From seeming so uncertain of things earlier, because of his missing eyepiece, he seemed to have gained quite a bit more confidence from all the people calling his name, or at least that's what I'd guess from the tiny grin I saw on his face, from when he spun around in a circle on the dance machine.

The song game to a close, what felt like much too soon, and it wasn't long before the whole place was in an uproar of cheers and applause. Nyunyu, who was facing the screen and hadn't seen the arrival of all these new people, blinked, a little startled, to see all the people gathered around. Toto, however, was still smirking, as if he enjoyed the attention… He stepped down from the machine, with Nyunyu in tow, and a number of guys around his age came up to him and patted him on the shoulder, congratulating him on doing an amazing job, and probably even setting a world record. The only response Toto really gave them was a quick nod, as he passed through the group. A couple of them complimented the skills of his 'little sister' too, which Nyunyu also responded to with nods of acknowledgement.

"Toto!" The girl who'd gotten the crowd going in the first place called out. All the people that had approached Toto to praise him took steps back all of a sudden as a girl (who I swear I'd never seen before, but struck me as familiar) rushed up to him and put her arms around him. "Toto, that was fantastic! I didn't know you could dance like that!"

"R-Ruri-chan" Toto stuttered. The main crowd began to disperse, leaving the two of them alone. Yuyu, Cocona and Papika had all gone over to Nyunyu, maybe trying to reassure her, as she still seemed a bit startled by all the people that'd suddenly appeared as she played.

Before Toto could really say or do anything else, the girl had left him and gone over to some of her school friends, and it was then that it hit me where I'd seen her before: she was the person who was standing to Toto's right in the class picture he had. The one he was looking at rather than the camera...

I turned to Toto and I swear his cheeks were a little pink. _Is he blushing? _My eyebrows raised at that point. _Does he have a crush on her? _It was possible, but the idea of that struck me as a little strange. _I would have thought Asclepius would take away the amorphous kids' ability to feel anything like that... _Apparently though, they didn't, and I felt a grin creep along my face.

"So... Ruri-chan, huh?" I asked him. He turned to look at me, his eyes a little wide, maybe because he was flustered from Ruri's attention, or embarrassed as someone had watched the whole exchange. As tempted as I was to tease poor Toto, I got the feeling I probably shouldn't do that, and instead, my grin became a soft smile, and I spoke in a gentle tone of voice I didn't quite think I was capable of (or certainly wouldn't have been capable of if I'd never met Cocona). "You like her, right?"

Toto dipped his head a fraction in a nod. His eyes flicked off in the direction Ruri and her friends went.

"Go talk to her," I said. Toto looked up at me, his eyes still a little wide, and tilted his head to the side like a confused bird. In any other situation I might have laughed at the sight.

"It's okay, Toto. I wanted to take you guys all out today so you could have some fun." _Frag knows when we'll get another chance to do so after all, I mean, we're not working for Asclepius any more, but that doesn't mean Flip Flap are gonna let us have as many chances to goof off like this. Especially if Hidaka keeps treating me like he does... Especially if you almost die in Pure Illusion again... _I think my smile dropped with that thought. _Could he even come with us again? _"Don't worry about me or the others," I quickly stepped behind Toto, to try and hide my face, and gently pushed him away from me. "Take this chance while you have it, and go talk to her."

Toto took a couple of hesitant steps forward. I just about had time to force a smile and nod, encouragingly, at him as he turned back to face me. It was a second before he returned my gesture, and wandered off to find Ruri.

_Go and be happy, Toto. Tell her what I could never tell Cocona..._

"Where'd Toto go?" Papika and the others had approached in time to see him as he left the group.

"There was someone from school he wanted to talk to, he said he'd meet us later" I said, my voice coming out sadder than I'd planned it to. _Damn it, Yayaka, you took everyone out to have fun today, didn't you? Don't bring them down like this. _I tried to change the subject quickly before anyone could ask why I appeared upset. "He also told me about a really cool arcade game in this place we have to try. Come on!"

I beckoned them as I dashed off in a random direction. What I said was a complete lie _**((One of many...))**_ and I had no idea where the hell I was going _**((When do you ever...?))**_ but I just wanted to try and run these thoughts away. I didn't even know if the others were following me, or if they'd even be able to catch up. _**((Telling Toto to be with the one he likes when you can't do it yourself... You can change that though, just switch with me...))**_

"Never." My voice was quiet and defiant as I spoke, but I needed to say that out loud. To prove I still had control over myself. _Cocona's chosen Papika. __**((Switch with me...))**__ I can't destroy that. __**((I can make Cocona yours...))**_

I wasn't looking where I was going, trying desperately not to get caught up in my own damn head and managed to crash into a table, not aware of my surroundings. Pain shot through my legs and I fell to the ground. _You're always telling others to be alert, Yayaka, take your own advice!_

"Shut up..." I mumbled out loud.

"Yayaka! Are you okay?" I was surprised to hear Cocona's voice so close. She knelt down next to me and tried to wrap one of her arms under my shoulder, to try and help me up. _**((Switch with me...))**_

It took all I had right then, not to shove Cocona away or to yell at her. Instead, I tried to focus on the pain in my legs, and tried to wriggle away from her grasp. My eyes fell on the table I ran into and I realised it wasn't a table at all... It looked more like an electronic drum kit. _What the..._ Further investigation of the area revealed a couple of guitar-shaped controllers, and a microphone stand, all of which had cables connected to a fairly large screen in front of us. The video demo that played for the game showed a rock band on stage, singing and playing their instruments. _A... music game? _I guess I should have expected something like this to exist after seeing the dance machines, but still.

Papika, Nyunyu and Yuyu's eyes were all glued to the screen, watching in awe.

"That looks fun!" Papika declared.

_Fun? _I looked at Cocona, into those warm brown eyes I loved so much, and tried to keep a hold on my voice as I told her "This is the game I was looking for. Got so excited I ran right into it..." I got paranoid then if she knew I was lying through my teeth, _**((Not the first time you've done that to her...)) **_and forced myself to take a few steps away from her, not trusting myself to be within physical contact range. She reached out a hand, as if to try and touch my shoulder, or to try and help me stand, but I tried to make it look like I was fine, and not that the reality was that if I ended up on the ground again, I'd probably stay there for an hour pretty happilly. She seemed to accept what I said, and had a closer look at one of the guitar controllers.

"Maybe we could give this game a try then..." she said, as she slung the strap over her shoulder.

"Me too!" Nyunyu said, rushing over to take a seat at the drum kit. I pulled a face, a little annoyed, as that's exactly the instrument I wanted to pick right now (although at the same time, like I said, I don't think I'd plan to get up any time soon if I _did _sit down or anything), and instead I went over to Yuyu who was still staring at the screen, longingly, her good arm resting on her cast... and my heart sank.

If my mood hadn't been bought down by my thoughts before, it certainly would have taken a nose-dive right then. _Even though there's not a piano here, she still wants to play... And she can't... First Yuyu had to go along on a bug hunt she didn't want to be part of, then couldn't play House of the Dead for that long, or the fighting game she wanted to, didn't seem to care for the dance machine, and now the one game she'd probably wanna play more than anything else... _

I stamped a foot on the ground in frustration, and winced as pain shot through my legs. _I deserve it though. I can't make myself happy, and what was meant to be a day of fun for everyone has ended up in Yuyu being left out more than anyone. She hasn't complained once, but she has to be hating this. _

_I need to make it up to her..._

It was then that I spotted a fifth instrument, hidden just below the screen... and I found a small smile work its way to my face.

_I think I can do that._

* * *

_Yuyu_

Very different today. Unusual activities, not normally done before.

Toto playing piano. Can take you to other worlds with only sound. Talent. _Toto thought of plan to go to Flip Flap. Can play piano. Assissted Nyunyu with bug hunt... Useful._

Watched video of the game play. Hit buttons in time to create music. Much like real instruments...

Like music. Poetry without voice. Art without sight. Vibrations of strings, drum tops or human voice. Blending, and weaving together in melody. Harmony. Emotion. Strong emotion. Fascinating.

Wonderful.

Want to learn. Want to try...

Dry plaster cast under right hand. Left arm trapped within. _Bad arm._ Want to play. Want to use arm. Want to be normal. Can't.

Angry. Useless. A burden.

_Defective..._

"Hey, Yuyu, come here," Yayaka's voice. Turn. Standing next to a keyboard, hand on it. Crooked smile aimed at me. "You wanna play too, right?"

Stunned. _Keyboard. _Not piano, but similar. Drawn to it. _Game says what to press. Follow instructions._

Walked over. Eyes didn't leave keyboard. Might be gone if I look away. ...Illogical thought. Physically impossible. Just... hard to believe.

Took a seat at it. Touched the keys. White. Black. Plastic. Pressed one. No sound. Connected to game probably, but keyboard is playable.

_Playable!_

"Everyone ready?" Cocona's voice. All answered. Yayaka answered for me. Staying by my side. _Found a keyboard. Called me over so I could play. _I smiled._ She cares._

_Yayaka... Keyboard... _

_Happy..._

* * *

_Yayaka_

I'm not gonna lie, I felt pretty good when I found the keyboard. Yuyu seemed mesmerised by the fact it existed. She stared down at it and pressed a key, as if to check it was real. Cocona called out, asking if everyone was ready to go.

"We're good!" I replied, before turning back to see Yuyu sitting there with the corners of her lips turned upwards in a little smile. She wasn't looking at me, but I ended up smiling right at her. It was nice to see her finally enjoying something today.

Cocona had a look through the list of songs, once again, maybe trying to find one she knew. I'd guess Nyuynu was getting inpatient waiting, or she just wanted to play, because she started tapping the drumsticks together in the air. It wasn't too long into Cocona's scrolling, that Papika pointed at the screen, and said "choose that one! I like the name!" Cocona scrolled back up to the song (called 'Over the Rainbow'*) and selected it. There wasn't really an indication of difficulty for the songs themselves this time, unlike the dance machine, but each person could pick their individual difficulty depending on how well they thought they could play the instruments. Cocona ended up going for easy, I'd guess not feeling too confident, Nyunyu began to tap the drum pads (the middle two of which acted as up and down) until she settled on normal, as did Papika.

Yuyu however, hesitated for quite a while. There were two ways to play the keyboard, 'simple' which would only show up 5 keys on the screen to press (which probably would have been okay for Yuyu), but she ended up picking the 'pro' mode. I could see why, as it was more realistic to how you'd play a piano in real life, but all I could think was how that may not have been the best choice for Yuyu. Well, it turns out she wasn't quite thinking of herself.

"Play with me,"

I blinked, shocked, and looked down at her. "What?" I had to check I wasn't just hearing things.

"Play with me," she said again, only a little louder this time. I could barely hear her over the song that'd started up, and by the sounds of it, instruments were being introduced fast. Cocona and Nyunyu were already playing. It probably wouldn't be long before Yuyu and Papika had to join in. I quickly glanced up at the screen, and saw… a lot of things going on. Like the dance machines, there were buttons to press scrolling along the screen that had to be hit in time (Five for Cocona's guitar, but only three colours showed up, I'd guess because of the difficulty she chose, and 4 colours for Nyunyu, with an orange bar for the kick drum), and in the background was a video of a rock band. There was also a horizontal bar at the top, I wondered about, but it wasn't long before the first lyrics of the song showed up on that bar, and I knew Papika would be singing soon… I caught sight of a string of white notes spread out over a very long area of the screen. _Is that the keyboard?! Crapping hell, there's no way Yuyu can play this on her own. _

I knelt down as quickly as I could, trying to ignore the pain in my legs, and hovered my left hand over the keyboard (I could have used my right as well, but if Yuyu was playing herself, she'd only have two hands to use. I'd feel like I was cheating if I used both my hands right now. I'm not sure Yuyu or Cocona would approve of it if I did), and just about managed to catch some of the notes as they started to dance along the screen.

I'm pretty sure I messed up a lot, I kept getting lost for where my fingers were on the keyboard and kept looking up and down, to the point of if my neck crapped up on me in addition to my legs, I wouldn't have been surprised.

One thing I _was _surprised to learn though: Papika was a pretty good singer! She sounded pretty close to how the original artist did, it was a little like there was a slight echo in here. Nyunyu's drumming seemed a little erratic to start with, as Nyunyu didn't quite seem to want to follow the directions on the screen, but eventually she began to drum in time, and mixed with Papika's singing, became quite a nice sound. Cocona may not have seemed too confident and picked the easy mode, but she seemed to be getting into it, and I thought I heard her chuckle once or twice, enjoying herself. I would have loved to have seen her face, but turning around would have meant the chaos that was the keyboard segment of the song would… Well, I don't want Yuyu to get a game over, when she has a chance to play an instrument that's pretty close to the one she's always wanted to play, especially if she's had such a bad day until now.

Either way, the music was all coming together, the five of us working as a team to make a song… Okay, the parts of the song that were bound to the keyboard were pretty on-and-off (literally, the song cutting out whenever me or Yuyu missed a note, and starting up again when we hit the next one in the sequence), but I looked over at Yuyu a couple of times while we played and…

_She's really in to this… _She winced when one of us missed a note, spoiling the song a little, but the other times, when she was hitting the notes and everything was working as it should? There was a light in those ruby eyes, and a smile on Yuyu's face, like I've never seen before. Hell, she was _beaming. _Her silver hair bobbed a little and caught the lights of the arcade, as she looked between keyboard and screen, making it look like flowing liquid metal.

She looked so… _alive_. The fact she only had one good arm and was only playing half of the notes wasn't getting to her at all. I thought I felt a little spark or something in my chest as I looked at her, and I found myself grinning.

Actually, playing together like this with everyone… I noticed as the song went along, that my bonds with Papika and Cocona flared. Nyunyu's did as well, although it was pretty weak, I'd guess because it was a pretty new connection… And that spark in my chest? I think that was a bond beginning with me and Yuyu.

Being a part of a team, hanging out with friends, and getting a little closer to these people as we worked together to do all of this…

It felt like a dream.

I ended up bursting into a giggling fit. Feeling everyone together like this… I felt warm. Like I was important, a part of something. I was with friends, and I was enjoying myself…

I was happy. Almost like I could have been floating or something. It was probably the best I'd ever felt in my whole life.

_This is great!_

… And then it happened.

_VWOOOHB!_

I guess we were all feeling pretty close to each other at that point. We must have all synched up, because the ground yawned open beneath us, into a huge black void…

A huge black Hole…

I just about had time to grab Yuyu's hand before we fell into Pure Illusion...

* * *

_Authors note: I didn't have a particular House of the Dead game in mind when writing the arcade scene, I've only played a couple of them once, it was just the first arcade game I could think of that had a gun you'd shoot at a screen, but I think I ended up going for House of the Dead 2. I don't know if there'd still be any arcade machines for that game around at all, but oh well. Also, for the fighting games, I Don't really play them, so I just sorta made one up on the spot for the fic._

_*Papika/Cocona's song choice: 'Over the Rainbow': The song that plays at the end of Episode 13 of Flip Flappers. Actually sung by Papika's and Cocona's Japanese voice actresses, so I thought it'd be a good choice. I wanted to refrence it somehow in my last fic in the last chapter, but with the ending I ended up going for, there wouldn't have been a chance to do so._

_But yes, the arcade segment of the chapter? The air hockey and the dance machine and the Rock Band/Guitar Hero? Those are the ideas I found myself smiling really hard about on public transport. Anyone who looked over at me must have thought I was a complete weirdo... I just thought it'd be really funny to have all the characters go to an arcade and check things out and play the games there. Hell, I have at least 3 more arcade scenes I've written that didn't make it into the fic because good GOSH at the rate I'm going, the characters would end up friggin' living in there if I kept writing… AND I STILL HAVE IDEAS FOR A FEW MORE ARCADE SCENES! They'll probably be posted in another fic or something... eventually. I'd like to finish this story first._

_But yes, I hope you had as much fun reading about the characters in the arcade, as I had thinking up all the ideas and bursting out laughing in the middle of a café while having lunch with a friend, for seemingly no reason._


	6. Chapter 5

_Yayaka_

I grabbed onto Yuyu's hand the instant I realised we were falling. I've been separated from others in Pure Illusion before, and it was bad enough having to deal with that once. I didn't want to risk that happening all over again.

Especially when Yuyu didn't have her gauntlet and couldn't defend herself.

_Hell, I don't have my rocket belt or my armour or anything…_

_...We don't have any weapons at all._

_Shit._

I could only pray the world we ended up in wasn't hostile…

* * *

The landing was soft, but cold. Not snow though, the ground was pretty solid, we were just lucky that the Hole only made us fall two inches, so I'd consider it a soft landing. Softer than landing in my room at Asclepius at least.

I got to my feet (my legs don't quite seem to hurt as much anymore, not sure how, but not complaining) and quickly took a note of our surroundings. The others weren't here, so maybe they were warped somewhere else in this place. There didn't seem to be any immediate danger, which I was glad about. It looked a little like we were standing inside an old factory or a temple or something, but entirely underground. The walls were metal, shades of gleaming bronze, brass and copper. Solid, round pillars held up the ceiling, which had circular patterns cut into it, a little like those diagrams you'd see of the orbit of the planets around the sun. There were a few blocky statues that stood in the corners of the area, including some upside-down on the ceiling, shaped a little like animals... And I mean, only a _little_ like animals. They looked blocky, as if rather than whatever made them taking the time to carve them into smooth shapes, that they had the metal bars ready, and instead melded them together until they vaguely resembled a creature with four legs. Everything in this area could well have been natural occurrences, (It's Pure Illusion, so who friggin' knows?) but the fact there seemed to be things that were purposefully constructed suggested we might not be alone in this world.

Despite the warm colours of the surroundings, there was a chill in the air. I wrapped my arms around myself to try and keep warm_. I wish I had my Asclepius armour... _I don't think it'd do too much good in this situation, as Yuyu managed to punch out the temperature regulator on it, so I'd probably be just as cold, but still, it'd probably be better for handling the cold than my school uniform... And that made me think, _the twins haven't been bothered by hot or cold weather before, but now I think about it, almost every time we've been to Pure Illusion, they've been wearing their armour... And now Yuyu's here, without it, and without her arm, for probably the first time..._

"Hey, Yuyu, how're you holding up?" I asked, spinning around to face her. She was still flopped on the ground, not having gotten up since landing here. Even though we only fell a short distance, the impact was enough to shatter some of the plaster on Yuyu's cast (which I noticed was a little damaged before we even arrived here) leaving powdery shards on the ground, and exposing some of her bad arm.

"Alive," she responded, her face expressionless, before a little shudder ran through her body "...Cold," she added. I guess the twins _do _get hot and cold after all. _The cast could actually have been useful here, and helped keep her arm warm... damn. _Well, it was still in the cloth sling at least, that held the arm in place, but still, I doubted it did too much against this chill. I didn't have my jacket so I couldn't offer her anything either (although honestly, even if I had it, I probably would have kept it for myself. Yuyu's school uniform included a longer skirt and long sleeves, mine had no such luxury. Fine if I needed to run, I guess, but right now I'd prefer 'warm' over 'ability to run'.)

"Right... We need to see if we can work a way... out of... here..." my voice tapered off as another thought struck me. "Yuyu... Do you have a Hole device?"

"No." She replied, her breath a little white cloud as it left her body.

"Tch." I thought that'd be the case. Toto was always the one who used them after all, but I was hopeful that this time that might not have been the case. Well, even then it was hard to be certain we could get one working... "That means we're stuck here unless we work out how Papika and Cocona could leave Pure Illusion without technology..."

"Impedance synchronisation?"

Yuyu's suggestion was probably a legitimate one, but I knew those were words Hidaka had used and thinking about the magenta-haired man made me mad. _I shouldn't be though; he might have helped save Toto's life. He made me a flower pot when Cocona and Papika carried me back to Flip Flap after I got hurt. He's not a bad guy. _But the fact he was a lab technician and made me think of the so-called 'humans' at Asclepius' base who forced me into another dimension, which almost resulted in my death multiple times, and basically treated me like a human pin cushion with the amount of damn blood samples they'd taken from me...

It's probably a good thing this place is cold, thinking about the 'people' at Asclepius made my blood boil, to the point of it wouldn't surprise me if I started to steam up just standing here...

I was about to reply to Yuyu's suggestion, with what would probably have been a burst of fury, when I suddenly noticed a strange sound.

"Can you hear something?" I asked. My voice was probably still tight with the anger I felt, but trust me, it was a lot calmer than how it could have come out... Yuyu rolled onto her side, and tried to push herself up with her good arm, only managing to get into a kneeling position, and tilted her head to listen. Sure enough, I was certain I could hear a little trickle of water coming from somewhere... Along with hissing.

And then my shoes felt wet.

It wasn't too easy to see to start with, a look down revealed the room we were standing in was starting to fill with water. There was no real indication of where it could have been coming from, everything looked far too water-tight, there were no cracks or holes or anything.

This water could somehow get in... but it wouldn't get out again.

And it showed no signs of stopping either.

_It's gonna flood._

"Move it!" I yelled to Yuyu, before I took off. At the rate this was going, we'd need to get to higher ground, and fast... Annoyingly, beyond the statues and the round pillars, there didn't seem to be any other structures in this place at all. I mean I could climb one of the pillars, sure... But there was no way in hell Yuyu could. Even if her cast smashed open completely and she had her other arm available, I doubted it'd be strong enough to support her weight if she tried to pull herself up. _Damn it! _I've worried about this sort of situation before, if Yuyu ever had to climb, if she had her gauntlet, she _might_ be fine, but there was no way in hell we could take that with us today, not without raising a ton of questions or getting funny looks from people-

_Why can I only hear one set of footsteps? _I stopped running, and the sound stopped too. _Yuyu hasn't moved. _I spun around and dashed back to find the silver-haired girl staring down at the water. It was a little strange seeing her red eyes look so... blank, after seeing them full of light just a few minutes ago at the arcade when we were playing the keyboard together.

"Yuyu, we need to go!" I shouted, hoping a more direct order including her name would get her to shift, but no such luck. The water was up to our ankles already, making the chill of the place cut into me even more. _Should've bought my damn jacket..._

"Come on, Yuyu!" I was getting mad again. _Why the hell isn't she moving?!_

That was when I realised there seemed to be something else in her eyes, beyond the blankness. Yuyu looked... haunted. _This place is flooding... She's almost drowned once before._

"I know you're scared" _okay, I don't know, I'm only guessing here, _"but if we stay here, we'll die for sure." I knelt down next to her, and reached out with a hand, wondering if maybe a reassuring touch would help, rather than me yelling my lungs out, and-

"Fffffffffraggin'- " I cursed, and withdrew my arm the second it touched her shoulder. I know she said she was cold, but that was an understatement. She was _freezing. _I thought my fingers would get frostbite just from that moment of contact. If it wasn't urgent that we got moving again as soon as possible, I would have checked to make sure my fingers weren't turning blue or anything.

"...c-can't" she said, her eyes slowly growing wider with fear, her breath becoming a white cloud as she spoke.

_Wait a second, why hasn't that happened to me? _I took a closer look at Yuyu's silver hair, and saw it flecked with lines of ice. Her school uniform seemed to be covered in a thin layer of frost, which seemed to grow thicker as the water met her clothes. _This must be how this world effects people... by trying to freeze them to death... Then why the hell am I okay? _

_More importantly, how the hell can I save Yuyu?_

_**((Switch with me…))**_

_Oh, screw you!_

Not even a second after the offer was made, there was a groan of metal, as the heads of the blocky metal statues turned towards us… And then a screech that sounded like a donkey's bray, or a metal gate opening, as they tried to wrench their melted paws from the ground. Thankfully their movements were pretty slow, but watching their legs jerk around as they tried to free themselves suggested they were very heavy, and that a nudge from one could break a bone. If they could charge and made impact, you'd be saying goodbye to your ribs, your organs, and your life.

A quick glance above revealed the ones on the ceiling were doing the same as the ones on the ground, pulling themselves away from the spaces they were confined… But they weren't dropping down. Not a clue if the ceiling was magnetic and keeping them up there, or if the top of this place had its own gravity, but they weren't coming down to attack, and that was fine with me.

_But if we could jump up there… would we stick to it too? Could we escape the water that way? Maybe, it would buy us some time at least, however that wouldn't stop Yuyu being frozen…_

The water was up to our waists now, which was pretty far considering we were both still kneeling. At the rate this was going, Yuyu was gonna be completely encased in ice in just a few more seconds. Heavy steps made the ground vibrate and the air ring with noise, as the four-legged statues made their way towards us, cutting through the water like it wasn't even there. If I could get a part of one of them, maybe a metal toe or tooth, I could use it to try and chip away at Yuyu's ice… Not that I was sure I could make my hands carry that out, the one that touched Yuyu's shoulder was numb with cold, to the point of it I couldn't see it, I wouldn't have believed it was there, and my other hand was barely any warmer than that. Same for my legs, by some miracle, not frozen like Yuyu's, but I got the feeling if I tried to get up and run again that I'd just trip and pretty much be asking to be… Crushed? Eaten? …Whatever those things would do to intruders. _But we have to get out of here somehow. I'm gonna need to force myself to move, and I can't leave Yuyu here alone._ _Am I gonna have to try and pick her up and drag her?_

Annoyingly, that was the only idea I had. With the hand I'd used before, I tried tugging at her shoulder (my other hand might not be in much better condition, but I'd rather not risk crapping that one up too somehow), to see if I could get her to move. Momentum forced her upper body towards me, but that was about it. _This is getting annoying... _I tried to stand up again, which was kinda difficult to do when my legs felt like they were chilled to the bone, and tried to kick the ice around her, as if I had a chance of breaking it.

_My legs. My legs didn't hurt any more when I landed here, and I'm holding up okay, whereas Yuyu's immobilised and becoming an ice statue... I'm stronger than her right now. More powerful..._

_Wait, 'powerful'? _That word stuck out to me. _The last time I remember feeling 'powerful' was when I had an amorphous on me…_

But that was impossible, the amorphous in my weapons belt was... well, in my weapons belt, way back in Flip Flap's base... And I don't think I felt like this because Yuyu was here, despite the fact she was made of the stuff... If that was the case, she shouldn't be having any problems here at all… Even then, being around the twins all those times in Pure Illusion has never affected me. _So why do I feel like this?_

That was when I looked down and saw myself wearing the dragon egg necklace Cocona gave me, glowing very faintly around my neck…

"You're kidding me..." I said, lightly touching the cut-in-half gem with my fingers. Sure enough, I felt a little stronger just holding it. _This thing's an amorphous?! Does Cocona know it's an amorphous? I mean I know she said it would protect me but-_

"Warm..." Yuyu's voice was quiet. Her head was pretty close to the little orange stone, and her breath wasn't misting up any more, which added evidence to my theory.

_If this is an amorphous… I can make a wish…_

The statues seemed to be gathering speed now, as they were closing in. Maybe the rising water was what activated them and gave them the strength to move, like some weird security system. Even if you could swim and made it to the top, it wouldn't stop the statues from drowning you. _Can the statues swim? _I didn't want to find out. What I _did_ want to find out though was a way to get back to the arcade. For now, though?

_I wish I had the power to keep me and Yuyu safe._

I didn't need to yell out 'Flip Flapping' to power myself up, the water around me became washed in an aura of warm green light, and my reflection revealed my hair had grown longer and become lime-coloured. My eyes had changed too, becoming a bright orange… a shade closer to red than I'd like. I thought my reflection sneered at me, as if trying to say 'it won't be long before we switch.' I growled, and turned my attention back to Yuyu, whose body was bathed in the aura I was giving off. Ice and frost dissolved, and she stood as quickly as she was able, to get further away from the water that could envelop her any second. I don't think she even noticed the monsters. The way she spun around, staring down at the water with wide eyes, made me think of a security camera that was trying to watch everything at once, and would explode if it didn't succeed. _She's really terrified… _

_But I can help with that. _I didn't feel as powerful as I did the last time I transformed, and I wondered why, when I remembered back in the Yuri-hell-school's clock tower, when Cocona drew a magic wand and called out her transformation phrase. _A full transformation must be bound to an item… Which for me is probably the copy of this' necklace's chain that came from Pure Illusion… _I was annoyed I didn't have that on me, but it's just a chain, it's pretty useless otherwise, I'd have no reason to bring it with me, or even keep it at all-

_Focus, Yayaka!_

I stood up beside her, and put a hand on her head, turning her to face me, frightened red eyes meeting my flaming orange. If I could feel her pulse, I imagine it'd be thrumming wildly.

"Yuyu, just concentrate on me, okay? I'm here," I said, trying to sound as commanding as I could. I wasn't sure how she'd react to reassurance in this situation, so I figured trying to play the leader, like I always did, would try and help her calm down. "It's just another mission. We might not have Toto's rocket pack, but we can still get out of here. I'm gonna need to get a good grip on you though. I know you're scared, but try not to freak out, okay?"

It was then that I wrapped my arms around her, tightly. She was still a little cold from freezing up before, but I can imagine she'd warm up pretty soon if I stayed close to her like this. _I hope I can still fly in this form…_

Yuyu tensed up as I held her, and when my feet rose a few inches from the ground, it wasn't long before she looped her good arm around me, and she buried her head in my shoulder, probably trying not to think about the water below. My guess, that her pulse was fast, ended up being right. I could feel Yuyu's heart thumping pretty quickly in her chest, as if it wanted to escape her body, if it meant getting away from the water sooner.

_She has a heart… _

For some reason, that thought made me pull her closer. I guess maybe, as much as I tried, I still found it a little odd to think of the twins as real, living, humans, when I'd pretty much grown up considering them nothing more than allies made from magic gemstones. I mean, they hadn't even _aged_ in all the time I've known them. When I joined Asclepius and I saw them for the first time, they looked exactly like they did then as they do now, and Asclepius just kept transferring them from school to school so they didn't raise suspicion.

_But Yuyu's just as alive as I am. She's holding me too, isn't she? And I can feel her heartbeat… _The spark in my chest I felt back at the arcade, the bond between me and Yuyu, flared up as I took the both of us higher into the air. _I can't have a bond like this with someone if they're not alive. She has feelings… and right now, she's frightened..._

"You're safe Yuyu. You don't need to worry about the water any more. I've got you." I whispered words of reassurance to her, even if her heart was beating too hard to hear me properly. Maybe just the sound of my voice would help her calm down a little or something. Much like in the yuri-hell-school, when Yuyu held my hand as we walked through the corridors, I found myself rambling for a while about… well, anything that came to mind. I didn't really know how to handle someone who was scared… Hell, I could barely handle _myself_ when I was scared, so I was just trying my best guess. Although saying that, before all these events today, Papika held me, just like I was holding Yuyu right now, when I was scared. _Maybe I'm doing something right…_ Thinking about Toto reminded me of what I said to Yuyu, when she didn't come with us on that our first Flip Flap mission to the dusty world, resulted in me saying, "this isn't quite what I had in mind when I said we could go to Pure Illusion another time…"

And I was surprised to get a response.

"…glad." There was a hint of a smile in her voice.

_So, she was listening… _I'd noticed at that point too, that her heartbeat felt a lot fainter, as if its racing had slowed and she was calmer. I was relieved that she seemed to be feeling better. _I should say sorry for earlier while I have the chance._

"Hey... I wanna apologise" I had to swallow then, as I suddenly felt nervous talking. Yuyu's head twitched against me, curious. "For saying you were acting weird earlier... I just think out loud sometimes, and I don't even realise I'm doing it. You're not weird, Yuyu. You're fine as you are."

If I got any kind of reaction, beyond Yuyu returning her head to its original position, or if she spoke, I wasn't aware of it. Metalic thuds echoed around us, as the statues on the ceiling had all gathered in one place: to the exact location we were flying up to. I'd honestly forgotten they were there. All of them were hanging upside-down, watching the two of us, with open mouths full of blunt, squared teeth. A couple of them looked ready to pounce, at us, and they did so...

_VWOOOHB!_

As a Hole opened up above us...

* * *

_A distant memory... A red sky, and burning ash. Skeletons of kids that were supposed to be my companions here, all melting and searing in the harsh heat... Trying desperately to get a Hole device to take me back..._

_I catch the sight of something shine under my feet..._

* * *

When my eyes opened again, I was in a heap on the floor, next to a table, which Yuyu was slumped over.

_No... not a table. A keyboard..._

It took a second for me to remember where the hell we were before we got to Pure Illusion. The spectrum of flashing lights and sounds from a ton of different games blared in my ears, as the arcade slowly seeped into focus. Everyone had abandoned their instruments and was standing over the two of us, looking worried. Well, Nyunyu stared blankly with those owl-like eyes, but she was with Cocona and Papika at least, so maybe she was worried too, hard to tell with that kid.

"Yayaka!" Cocona cried, "Are you okay? You both just collapsed! What happened?!"

_'What happened?' _The question confused me. _Didn't you see the huge Hole? _I guess they didn't if they were asking that. It's odd, I thought they'd all ended up coming with us, but I guess not, so I answered, "Pure Illusion..."

"Pure Illusion?" Cocona sounded as confused as I felt. "But I thought you disappeared from this world when you went there..."

_So did I... _

"Nyu guys went together?" Nyunyu asked.

"Apparently..." I said. It's odd, I would have thought that question would come from Papika rather than from Nyunyu, so I looked at the blue-eyed girl, wondering why she hadn't spoken to see a small smile on her face, which for some reason irked me. _The hell are you looking at?_ I felt my face screw up in annoyance, and then shifted myself so I could stand up and I felt something solid under my hand, as I pressed against the floor. Curling my fingers around the object, I found it was a little hard to hold into, my fingers stung from the temperature of it. Cold as ice...

_No... Cold as bronze._

A metallic brown sheen glinted from the gaps between my fingers, as I turned it over and looked down at a couple of partially-fused cuboids. _It definitely wasn't a dream... _

"...Returned?" I turned around to see Yuyu, who was still flopped over the keyboard, her red eyes as blank as ever, but looking at me. Her cast was pretty much useless now, all the plaster was gone, and what little remained was barely held together by loose bandages, just about contained in the cloth sling.

"Yeah, we're back," I answered. "You okay?"

Yuyu nodded. She pushed herself up from the keyboard, and her bad arm moved with the momentum of the action, causing her mouth to pull back in a small wince as it hit the keyboard. _We should probably head back to Flip Flap soon. Yuyu can't go around like that, not if her arm can get hurt._.. As I was about to suggest that though, I saw a coppery shine from under the fingers on her good hand. _She came back with some metal, too? _I guess when the statues leapt for us, parts must've gotten caught in the Hole, and it managed to slice some of them up. _Works for me though. Hidaka said he'd give my visor back if I had a sample from Pure Illusion, and I do now: parts of living metal creatures._

Suddenly, I felt a buzzing coming from my skirt pocket, and nearly jumped out of my skin. _What the hell?! _I reached a hand in, and pulled out the buzzing object: My phone. _I'm always forgetting this thing exists..._ There wasn't a caller ID in the screen, just a phone number, which I was a little wary about. _The only person who should have my number is Cocona... And according to those missed phone calls, Toto and Yuyu... _I still needed to ask those two what was up with that. For now, I clicked the button to answer.

"Who is this?" I demanded, feeling antsy about a random number calling my phone.

"Yayaka, where are you?"

I breathed a sigh of relief, hearing that monotone male voice. _I should have known it was just Toto. He's probably memorised my number and is using Ruri's phone to contact me._

"Still in the arcade, near the..." I turned around so I actually knew what the game we were just playing was called. "Rock Band machine." A look at the scoreboard on the music game's screen showed that everyone's scores completely tanked towards the end of the song. On mine and Yuyu's end, because both keyboard players were out of commission, having gone to Pure Illusion all of a sudden. On the other's end though- _You're talking to Toto, Yayaka, don't get distracted. _"It's pretty big, you can't miss it."

There was a pause before he spoke again, and I pictured him nodding, even though I couldn't see him, to confirm he'd heard. "Will see you there."

I was about to press the button to end the call when my phone screen went black. Confused, I pressed the button to try and turn it on again, and got no response. I guess the battery died at last. It's probably a miracle it lasted as long as it did. I stuffed it back into my pocket and relayed the information to the others. They seemed satisfied with that, but I thought Cocona looked a little confused. It was a second before I realised why. _I told her Toto heard about a cool game here we could try out. If Toto was the one who supposedly told me about the game, why would I have to tell him it was 'pretty big' and that 'you couldn't miss it?'_

I looked away, trying not to let the others see the anger on my face, as I got mad at myself for telling Cocona another lie, _**((Switch with me…))**_ and decided to keep an eye out for Toto. It wasn't long before he appeared, with Ruri following a little way behind.

"We're here, Toto," I said, waving him over. He probably didn't need me to say anything, but if I spoke out loud, then maybe I could try not to think about lying to Cocona again. Toto turned to Ruri, probably to say goodbye, and it was a second before she smiled and waved at him, before heading off into the arcade on her own, leaving him alone to join us.

"Who was that?" Cocona asked as he approached.

"Ruri-chan," he said. He wasn't looking up as he spoke, I'd guess nervous about the situation, which was confirmed when his eyes turned to me with a look I'd probably interpret from anyone else as 'save me'. I found myself grinning, finding it kind of cute that he still appeared to be nervous.

"Just a friend of his from school," I answered, trying to cover for him, and save him any more embarrassment.

"Is she your girlfriend?!" Papika blurted out, with an excited smile that made me wonder if she didn't in fact grow up in Pure Illusion, but whether she was some old Asclepius experiment that had turned an overly enthusiastic dog into a person.

"What have nyu got there?" The question came from Nyunyu, whose gaze was locked to something in Toto's hand. I hadn't even noticed he was holding anything, until he lifted it up into plain view; a keyring with a small stuffed animal on the end, a little green bear. Not something I would have really thought Toto would carry around with him, so I'd guess Ruri gave it to him at some point. Nyunyu reached out to turn it over and get a better look at it from all sides.

"I want one too!" she declared, raising a hand in the air.

"Me too! It's super cute!" Papika chimed in, leaning in to get a closer look at the tiny plushie.

"I don't think we should," Cocona said, looking down at her watch, "It's getting late, we should head back to Flip Flap."

I took the opportunity to speak up, thinking about Yuyu's bad arm, "yeah, I'm getting tired," a yawn caught me by surprise as I was talking, but it helped get the point across. "We can always come here another day," I said.

Papika made a disappointed noise, but seemed to accept it. Nyunyu and Yuyu nodded, as did Toto, who quickly glanced up at me and nodded a thanks for not telling the others about his crush on Ruri.

And with that, we all left, and went back to base.

* * *

Man, compared to the arcade, Flip Flap was a lot less… well, everything. A lot less colourful, a lot less noisy. It was kinda nice to be back here actually, after having so many of my senses assaulted at the arcade. Don't get me wrong, it was fun as hell in there, and I'd be all for going again, but so much happened, including me and Yuyu getting warped to Pure Illusion by ourselves, and being back somewhere vaguely familiar was kind of relaxing…

Well, it was until I remembered I had to hand over my sample from Pure Illusion to Hidaka. The thought annoyed me. _But if I want a place to stay, I'm gonna have to do it. Sooner rather than later, too. _

"You guys go on ahead," I told the others. They all looked back at me, Papika and Cocona with a little confusion, and the amorphous kids all stared blankly. "There's something I've got to do," I said, my reluctance probably starting to show in my voice. My eyes met Yuyu's and I looked down at her good hand, to see the metal chunk still clutched in her grasp. _At least I won't be alone with this. _I signalled with my head for her to come with me, and she nodded, as we both set off for Hidaka's lab.

* * *

"Here's your stupid sample," I said, placing my small slab of metal on Hidaka's desk, which echoed with a loud metalic 'THUD'. Yuyu placed hers' down too, with about as much care, but the sound still almost drowned out everything else in the room.

Hidaka, who was facing away from us, examining something on the table in front of him, turned to meet us, before he looked down at the small pieces of metal, eyebrows raised. He took a step over, and carefully took one of the metal chunks.

"It's cold..." he mumbled, as he turned it over in his fingers, the object catching the lights from above, and casting golden reflections around the room. I was expecting him to start yelling at me, throw the metal at my face, and tell me to bring back something that actually came from Pure Illusion, rather than some cheap bronze part I found somewhere in the base, but he didn't. He grinned widely, to the point of I thought is face was going to split in half, and he picked up the other piece, looking over that one just as eagerly.

"Very nice... It looks identical to metal you'd find here on Earth, but you can tell just by feeling it, there's different properties to its regular counterpart... 'Illusion Bronze'..." He clacked the two pieces together, and I had to cover my ears to try and ignore the ring that echoed out. You want an idea how loud it was? Grab a few microphones, hook them up to amplifiers, and point them at a large church bell as it rings. To say the least, it hurt to hear. The noise wouldn't leave my head for like a solid minute, all I could hear was whistling, but Hidaka was still talking to us. I didn't have a clue what he was saying at all. Yuyu was watching him carefully though, probably lip reading. He sorta danced around on the spot, hopping happily, and I realised my hearing was coming back when I heard his wooden sandals clacking against the floor as he cackled.

His speech was still muted, and I couldn't understand a single word he was saying, but he definitely pointed at me at one point, saying something, before turning his attention to Yuyu. I took the chance to peek behind him and see what he was examining on the table. I was expecting to see my visor, but instead, it was Yuyu's giant gauntlet, and a few other things, most of them were story books that didn't look like they belonged in a lab environment at all, and-

"My jacket?" I couldn't help saying that out loud. Apparently Yuyu's hearing must've come back too, and Hidaka (either wasn't affected somehow, or could sense people who were interested in things in his lab) as they both looked at me as I stepped around to get a better look at the items on the table. That jacket can't have been the copy of the one I had in my weapon belt pocket, or at least I seriously doubted it, because as I got closer, I realised something about the books.

"These are my books from Asclepius..." I said, tracing a finger along one of them. I picked the most worn of them up, and turned to the pages where I hid the necklace Cocona had given me, and sure enough, there was a faint indentation from having the chain pressed against the pages for all those years, confirming my thought. They were all in pristine condition, beyond that one, having hardly ever read them. I was never much of a reader, but Cocona bought them for me, because I enjoyed listening to her stories so much. They're not bad books, don't get me wrong, but it's just not the same, having the stories without her to tell them to me... "But how did they get here?"

"Said you wanted to keep rock and leaf." I turned to face Yuyu, whose monotone voice reached me from across the room. "Didn't take books or jacket."

_Yuyu took them? I guess that explains how they got here... _Suddenly, I caught sight of something else of mine on the desk. _My visor! _Before I knew it, my arm had lashed out to try and grab it, but Hidaka must have known what I was going to do, because as fast as I was, he was prepared enough to slap my hand away.

"Hey! What the hell?!" I snapped, angry, "You said I could take it if I gave you a sample from Pure Illusion!"

"Yes, I did say tha-"

"So, hand it over!"

"No way, I'm not finished with it yet!" He stood between me and the device. "You can have it back soon, but right now..." His voice melted away, as if he'd clanged the pieces of Illusion Bronze together again. I found myself getting madder the longer I stared at that damn white lab coat of his, and that stupid magenta hair. I was breathing heavily, trying to keep myself under control. I could feel my blood boiling again, and I wished I was back in that stupid metal temple, where it was cold. _I don't care if it meant I'd drown. _I looked down and clenched a shaking fist around amorphous necklace Cocona had given me. _Drowning would be better than having to put up with all this stupid Pure Illusion crap again. _

"You know what? FINE!" I practically tore the silver chain from my neck, as I threw the thing at him. "Take the damn amorphous too! It's all you scientists care about, right? You guys- You just _take, _and _take _and you never stop!" I screamed as everything just kept pouring out and my eyes flooded with tears. "I never asked to go to Pure Illusion! I never asked to be taken by Asclepius, and forced into a world where I nearly burnt to death on arrival! I had to watch _ten other kids die!_ Their skin melted, and their bones charred before my eyes, and there was nothing I could do to save them! I'm still alive, by some... _stupid _ass miracle... and they didn't even have a _chance! _I was experimented on, because I was the only survivor. Every other damn day, I had another blood sample taken from me, and I was fed on tasteless rations, because although I was their important key to Pure Illusion, they didn't care! I could cry, and they'd tell me to suck it up. I'd come back hurt, but they'd only fix me, so I could find some damn amorphous for them. Scientists _never _care! _And you're no different from them!"_

If anyone attempted to call me back into the room, I didn't hear them. I'd already turned around and started running.

* * *

_Yuyu_

"Yayaka!" Called her name. No response. Worried. Wasn't aware of things before Toto and I were created. _She's hurt. Been hurt for a long time._

Can't imagine how she's dealt with that. Likely hasn't.

_Hurt. Want to help. Don't know how._

_Can't help._

Hidaka stared down at amorphous. Picked it up. Looked at doorway, worried.

"I'm sorry... I didn't know," his voice a whisper. _Feels guilt? _Possible. Stood like that for a while, unsure. Turned to computer console. Pressed button, then spoke.

"TT-392, if you encounter Yayaka, take her to-" He cut off. Turned to me. _Requesting help?_

Cocona or Papika could make her think of Pure Illusion. Yayaka seems to dislike Salt. Saw Yayaka give rock and leaf to Sayuri. Seems to trust her. Sayuri best choice. "Sayuri-san," I answered.

"Take her to Sayuri," Hidaka finished. Papika's robot responded. Hidaka pressed buttons and spoke again. "Hey, Sayuri? Yayaka seems stressed out. If you see her, do you think you could try and help her?"

"Yeah, no worries," Sayuri replied.

Communications over. Hidaka sat in chair, slumped over, upset. Felt the same.

Want to help. Can't help.

"Yayaka..."

* * *

_Yayaka_

I was blinded by tears, and deafened by the blood roaring in my ears. The only sensations I was aware of were my feet pounding the floor, and the thoughts in my head.

_**((Switch with me… You can have Cocona… You can have revenge on the scientists…))**_

I tried hard to focus on my feet. It was starting to get painful whenever they slapped the floor, but I was fine with that. I could focus on the pain, rather than that stupid voice. _Cocona loves Papika. I shouldn't change that. Hidaka hasn't done anything wrong to me, it was Asclepius. _Those were the rational thoughts in my head, but it was getting harder and harder each moment to listen to them, as they were being drowned out by that damn offer _**((Switch with me…)) **_

"I am Yayaka, and I will not switch" I felt my lips move, more than heard my own voice as I said that. It was getting more tempting, every time I heard those words, to say 'yes'. It was getting harder and harder to keep a grip on reality, and not to give in to the promises of my darker self. _I've seen what a dark Mimi could do. She almost destroyed all of Pure Illusion because she couldn't have Cocona all to herself. _There was probably more behind her actions than just that, but still, I didn't trust myself with that kind of power… Especially not a darker side of myself. Back when me and Papika fought Yamimi in Pure Illusion, Papika had said she wanted her 'dear Cocona and her gentle Mimi' back. _If Mimi was gentle before, and switching made her do that… What could _I _do with that kind of power? _

The thought terrified me.

_I can't switch. I can never switch! _

SMACK!

I cursed, as I managed to trip up. Shouldn't be surprised, I wasn't really paying attention to my surroundings. _Man, that fraggin' hurt…_ My bangs had fallen loose from the ribbon at the top of my head, and were now in front of my eyes, making it harder to see.

"Yayaka-chan?"

I wiped a hand across my face, mostly trying to hide the fact I'd just been crying, rather than so I could see properly, to look up at the person who'd said my name. Concerned grey eyes, and shoulder-length brown hair, pressed to the back of her neck by a pair of white and red headphones revealed the speaker to be Sayuri.

"Are you okay?" She knelt down next to me, and tilted my head up, so she could see if there were any injuries. Although I was pissed off, and my emotions were kinda haywire otherwise because of Hidaka, I didn't have the energy to slap Sayuri's hand away. If anything, her question just made a few more stray tears escape, and I hiccupped as I tried to reply. _I must look pathetic… _

If Sayuri thought so, she didn't say anything. Or not along those lines at least. She turned away from me, and over to her desk. I'd guess she pressed a button for some sort of communicator, as I heard something 'click' as her hand went to it, and she started to speak. "Hey, Doctor Salt? I'm going to take a few days off, starting tomorrow. Yayaka seems to be struggling adjusting to Flip Flap, and she appears pretty tense, so I'm going to take her to stay with me for a little while."

It was a second before a weary sounding "fine" replied to her from speakers hidden somewhere in the base.

"It can't be easy going to Pure Illusion all the time, you guys probably deal with a lot in there…" she said, as she closed her laptop and tucked it into a bag. "It's probably about time I had a break from this place myself." She turned to me, with a relaxed smile on her face, as I tried to wipe more tears away from mine. _Why won't they stop?_

"It's okay to cry, Yayaka-chan," Sayuri said, gently. "I'll get my things together, and give you some time to calm down. When you're ready, I'll be at the elevator, and we'll go to my house. You can stay with me for as long as you need to."

* * *

_Authors note__: Okay, that wasn't how I wanted to reveal the necklace as an amorphous, or not quite that way, but I guess that's gone and happened now. I'm wondering if I foreshadowed that okay in the last fic, it's hard to tell because I'm the one coming up with all the ideas in the first place, so I know all that's going on and stuff, so I felt it may have been a bit obvious, even if it wasn't too clear at all..._

_Also I apologise if you guys wanted more of the metal monsters, I wanted to write more, but I wasn't really sure what I could do with them exactly when Yayaka and Yuyu didn't really have a way to fight back. Originally the chapter just had the place flooding, but I wanted to use the statues somehow to make it more interesting._


	7. Chapter 6

_Authors note: This chapter may mostly be from Yuyu's POV. I'll try and make it interesting/fine to read. I may try and... 'expand' her usual POV style to make it a bit clearer what's happening. I feel in previous chapters I may have been a bit messy with that, as I've been trying to emulate how the twins speak in the show, and have that be their 'inner voice', I'll try and make things clearer, or may even change her style entirely for the sake of this chapter. I'll see how I go._

* * *

_Yayaka_

I didn't have too many things to gather. Sayuri had my Cocona rock and my metal leaf already, and the only other things of mine in Flip Flap were in Hidaka's room, and I had no intention of going back in there any time soon. It felt pretty weird to be going to someone else's house that wasn't Cocona's… And even then, it was pretty weird to be walking around town with someone older than me. Beyond the times when Cocona's 'grandma' took the two of us out somewhere, it never happened, so I wasn't really sure what to do. I didn't know if I should talk or anything, so I just stayed silent the whole journey.

We got to Sayuri's house, and she clicked the lights on, to reveal... An awful lot of movie and anime posters, in addition to a lot of DVDS and Blu Rays on her shelves. A quick glance at all of them revealed none I recognised. Otherwise, the decoration in the place was pretty sparse, leaving only a desk for her laptop (where my rock and leaf were), and a clothesline (complete with clothes) hanging from the ceiling, which split the space into two. A peek behind it revealed a plain bed, and yet, more movie posters. I suddenly remembered that I was in someone else's house and thought that I probably shouldn't just go and look through all of their belongings, and retreated back to the main living area, feeling like an intruder. _I guess I am in a way… I don't exactly live here after all…_

"It's fine if you want to take a look, I'm not hiding anything back there." Sayuri's voice made me jump, and I twisted around, feeling as if I'd just been caught doing something I shouldn't have been, even though she just said it was okay for me to do so. _I've been here for maybe a minute, and I already feel out of place…_

"Do you watch many films, Yayaka-chan?" Sayuri asked. She was giving me a friendly smile as she spoke.

"Not really had the chance," I said, a little surprised by the question. Not because of its content, going by the posters on display, it was only a matter of time before Sayuri asked me about the subject, but still, it was really weird to be dealing with an adult who was treating me… well, nicely. It made suspicious. "…Is there something you want from me?" I asked.

Sayuri blinked, confused at my question. "I don't want anything from you," she said.

_This doesn't make any sense… _"…Then why am I here?"

"Because you seemed upset by something and I wanted to help you." Sayuri said. I was shocked by how… _genuine _she sounded when she said it. _I hardly know her, and she's showing this much concern for me… _It wasn't the first time this'd happened of course, I mean when I first met Cocona, she was just as worried about me as Sayuri was now. _An adult wants to help me... _If that ever happened to me back in the orphanage, it was far too long ago for me to remember. Almost any memories I had of that time were pretty much erased by everything Asclepius made me deal with… But if being around Cocona and Papika has taught me anything, it's that there _are _kind people in the world, and that sometimes, they really do want to help. To experience this from an adult was a new one for me, but out of everyone at Flip Flap, I was glad it was Sayuri at least. I don't think I could take Salt's heaviness or Hidaka's… Hidaka-ness.

"…And this isn't a part of some weird scientist experiment or something?" I had to ask. It felt too good to be true.

Sayuri looked confused, but answered "I don't think so. Hidaka-san just-"

Part of me knew Sayuri was innocent, but all that really registered with me was Hidaka's name, and I felt myself tense up. I didn't have my weapon belt with me, but my hand went to my hips anyway, as a reflex, even though the person I considered an enemy wasn't in the room.

"…wanted to help you." Sayuri finished.

My eyes narrowed. I know Sayuri just said this wasn't an experiment, but now it's been revealed that a scientist is part of the reason behind all of this. _He has to be planning something, by having me be away from Flip Flap for a while… _"Why?"

It was a little while before Sayuri spoke, as if she was choosing her words carefully, which made me a little more suspicious. "I'm honestly not too certain. He said you were stressed out, and that I should try and help you how I can."

_He wanted Sayuri to help me? _Now I began to wonder just how much of Sayuri's concern for me was real. "…What else did he say?"

"That was it, honestly. I don't know much about the situation myself."

I got the feeling she was telling the truth. My hand dropped back to my side. "Why are _you _helping me?" My question was more genuine curiosity now, more than paranoia.

"Because you were crying and seemed distressed," she replied. I waited for her to say more, and she didn't.

"…That's it?"

"Yes."

We stood there for a while, as I stared Sayuri down. She didn't blink, or look away, and her grey eyes showed nothing but honesty.

"Okay." I let myself relax. Time will tell if it's a mistake to trust Sayuri, but for now, I was away from Flip Flap and from Pure Illusion, away from mad scientists and the insanity that I've been a part of for so long. A break has been exactly what I wanted for a long time, and although showing the amorphous kids all around town, and playing at the arcade was nice, it wasn't nearly enough time away from it all. Who knows, being here might help me chase that damn voice away that keeps wanting me to switch. "There's one thing I don't get though…"

"What's that?"

I was a little startled why she'd asked a question, when I realised, I'd said that last part out loud. _Well, I guess I should ask what's on my mind. _"Why were you asking me if I watched a lot of films?"

Sayuri chuckled. "Because I wanted to get to know you better. I don't know a lot about anyone at Flip Flap, even though we've all been together for a long time. We don't really get the chance to talk or hang out a lot." She paused. "Well… That and it's an excuse to show someone new all of my favourite movies."

I blinked, as Sayuri turned her back to me and began searching her shelves. The statement was probably a pretty normal one to make in any other situation, but to someone who's life revolved around going to another dimension, with barely any social interaction, the fact that my time was probably going to be spent sat around watching various stories and _seeing _other worlds, rather than being able to wander _inside_ those worlds myself, and not being able to touch or feel them... it was going to be a completely different experience to say the least.

"Oooh, we have to watch this one!" She said, pulling out a DVD case. "Come on!" She seemed so excited by the idea that she was simultaneously struggling to take the laptop out of her bag, while sitting down at her desk, and also trying to keep the DVD in her hands. I found myself a little amused at her eagerness to show me one of her favourite films, and went to help her set everything up.

Then we began to watch the movie, an activity that would probably be my life for the next week or so...

* * *

_Yuyu_

Strange without Yayaka around. Apparently went to stay with Sayuri for a while. Miss her.

Spent time working with Hidaka in his lab… Was part of trade. Hidaka said he could fix my arm. Said I would be assistant to him in return. Told me new discoveries.

Necklace Yayaka threw at him is amorphous. Also, more detail.

"You and your brother are both made from the same amorphous of Mimi's, yes?"

"Yes."

"That's what I thought… Cocona said how Mimi took the amorphous' power away, to prevent her, Papika, and Yayaka from transforming in Pure Illusion, and how she and Papika overcame that and transformed by themselves without that power…" _Transformed by themselves? _Thought to be impossible. _Cocona is Mimi's biological daughter. Must have some power. Possible._ "…but the amorphous' power is still gone, having drained away…" Turned to face me, "being made from amorphous, it's dangerous for you and Toto to go into Pure Illusion. The power has been taken from all the other amorphous, but you guys weren't there when it happened, so the effect is slowly taking hold on the two of you, whenever you go there."

"Reason for Toto's illness?" _Reason for freezing?_ Not told him about that. May have just been world's influence. _Need to test._

"Yes… HOWEVER!" Sudden excitement in his voice. "Nyunyu is made differently from you two!"

"Differently?" Tilted head to side.

"She's made from _this _amorphous, and that's why she wasn't effected!" Held out small half-amorphous, smiling. No explanation. Mildly irritating.

"Request information."

"You see… This isn't Mimi's amorphous! Or not _entirely_ Mimi's!"

_Strange. If not Mimi's… _"Cocona-onee-chan's?"

"Yes! …Well, maybe. It's probably one of Mimi's but, it has _definitely_ been influenced by Cocona, by being in her possession… Do you know much about it?"

Shook head. "Belongs to Yayaka." Saw replica in Pure Illusion on the floor. No amorphous, only chain, along with jacket. Gave them both to her.

"I need you to carry out an experiment." Hidaka said, hand to glasses. "Test my theory: If you wear this amorphous, or carry it with you, you should be fine in Pure Illusion. You'll go with Cocona, because her power should keep you safe there if the amorphous doesn't."

_And if not safe? What if necklace amorphous loses power? What if Cocona has no power? _Couldn't ask. Am assistant. Should follow orders. _Pure Illusion with Cocona-onee-chan… Can ask her about something. Good time to ask._ Nod. Took amorphous from him.

"Before you go… I think there was something else that was a part of our little trade…" He grinned. Looked down at bad arm. I copied. Being assistant not only part of trade. Surgery required…

* * *

Found Cocona easy. Writing in notebook while talking to Papika. Both smiling. Small smile of my own. _Cute together. _Smile gone. _Need Cocona. _

Approached. They looked at me, slight confusion for a moment. Wearing Yayaka's jacket. real one, not copy. No sling or cast for bad arm. No longer needed. Left sleeve mostly hollow. Must look odd.

"Request from Hidaka: Go to Pure Illusion with Cocona-onee-chan."

Cocona seemed to accept this. Stood up, alongside Papika. Expected Cocona to comply. Instead...

"Yuyu?" Cocona said name, in question. _Not clear?_

"Request: Go to Pure Illusion with Cocona-onee-chan." Repeated order.

"Are you sure that's a good idea?" She asked, looking at bad arm. _No, not bad arm. No arm. _

"I'm coming with you!" Papika said. Sounded determined.

"Not required," said to her. "Know coordinates of a safe world." Memorised long ago in case.

"Co-orbit-nuts?" Papika didn't know word.

Nodded. Before could say more, Papika spoke again.

"You might not need me there, but me and Cocona promised we'd see Pure Illusion together," She took Cocona's hand. Smiled at her, "I want to explore every world, old and new, and I want to share every adventure I have with you."

Rhyme likely unintentional, but Cocona smiled. Bumped her forehead to Papika's.

_Promised to see Pure Illusion together. Share the experience... A nice promise. Cute. _But also hurt to think about. _Someone to share Pure Illusion with... _If experiment fails, going to Pure Illusion unwise. Could result in destruction. _But want to go with Yayaka again..._

Papika spoke. Aimed at me this time. "I can't let the two of you go alone, anyway, Yuyu. If you run into danger, you won't be able to defend yourself, and I don't know if Cocona can transform without me, which means she might not be able to defend herself either." _Has a point. _"Besides, Toto, Yayaka and Nyunyu had trouble getting out one time, right? Me and Cocona are really good at making a Hole now. We won't get stuck, and we won't leave you behind either. We'll both protect you while we're there!"

_Toto, Yayaka, Nyunyu stuck in Pure Illusion. Couldn't get out. No problem with Papika and Cocona. Bond with Cocona alone may not be sufficient to leave. _Has many points. Nodded, accepting Papika into group. She smiled.

"Come on then! Let's go!" Papika excited. She ran off, pulling Cocona with her. Ran after them. Conversation while going to Thomasson.

"Pure Illusion has coordinates?" Cocona asked. _Must be curious from previous statement._

Nodded in answer... But also confused. Asked, "No coordinates needed?"

"No," Cocona answered. Pause. "Is that how you got to Pure Illusion at Asclepius?"

Nod.

"Well… we don't do that here."

Tilted head to side. _Strange. _"How then?"

* * *

Cocona and Papika took me to Thomasson. A little wary of thin path, but no large concern. No risk of losing Yayaka's books. Papika went across with me. Agile. Would react to help if required. Cocona stayed at other end, saying encouragement. Held hand out like Yayaka did. Made it across.

Was taken to metal cupboard. Opened to reveal two levels. Upper and lower. Papika clambered into top one. Cocona seemed slow to move. Went into bottom compartment. Looked up at Papika. Looked down at Cocona. Looked up again.

"Where do I go?" Asked, unsure.

"Go with Cocona!" Papika said. "It'll be easier for you to get out if you only have one arm."

Another good point. Hunched over and stepped into lower part of Thomasson. Cramped with Cocona here Would be difficult to fit us both if I had gauntlet. Cocona held out hand to me.

"Now, we take each other's hands, and synch up our hearts," she said. Papika's hand came down from above. Cocona took it, not needing to look. Slowly reached out for her with good arm. Gripped Cocona's remaining hand. That part done, but "...'Synch up hearts'?" Sounds illogical. _Heart is a muscle. Organ required for survival. Synchronise heartbeats maybe?_

"We need to all think and feel the same!" Papika explained. After that, silence. Hard to describe, but air in there… changed. Cocona's eyes closed, focused. Couldn't see Papika, but could feel same focus from her. _What are they thinking?_

Felt scared. Uncertain. _Might not be able to go this way. Mind is different. Made from amorphous. Not real human. _

_Toto and Nyunyu could go with Yayaka. Amorphous and human._

_I can go._

Sudden feeling... Bond between the two. Felt it reach out for me. Closed eyes. Thought of time at arcade. _Could work as a team then. Create music._

_Papika helped me in arcade. Shot zombies attacking me in House of the Dead._ _Said she would protect me in Pure Illusion. Trust her._ Focused. _Cocona. Sister. Defeated troublesome enemy in fighting game. Trust her too..._

Felt a connection with them.

_Go to Pure Illusion._

And then... a pull.

* * *

Opened eyes... and was no longer in Thomasson.

World of light, pastel colours. Land solid. Looked soft as clouds. Dead white coniferous trees. Shone like polished marble. Cocona and Papika gasped.

"It's so pretty!" Papika said. "Cocona! Look at this!" Took her hand, and went to investigate further. Smiled as watched them. Big eyes, curious of available sights. They laughed together, fascinated and joyful. Began to get further away from me, wanting to explore.

_Can't leave them. Can't defend self. One arm. _Face fell, annoyed. No weapon. No armour. In school uniform again. No temperature regulator. Hand and feet felt cold. Rest of body seemed fine. Looked at necklace. Touched with good hand. Warm. _Am safe... For now._

_Need to talk to Cocona._

Approached them. "Cocona-onee-chan"

They both jumped, startled. Seemed lost in world. Forgot I was there. A little hurt... But also understood. _World looks nice. Want to show Yayaka._ Thought made me nervous. Not sure why. Cocona and Papika looked at me, waiting for me to talk.

Nervous. Can't talk.

Cocona spoke. "Did you want something, Yuyu?"

Should reply. Can't reply. Trouble speaking. Fingertips felt cold. Feet cold.

_Freezing?_

Papika spoke next. "So, why did Hidaka want you and Cocona in Pure Illusion?" Looked at her. Hard to speak. Hand went to necklace. _Warm. _Felt a little stronger.

"Experiment to test necklace." Took hand away, revealing the amorphous. Cocona seemed alert.

"I saw Yayaka wearing that earlier," She said. "It looks like the necklace I gave her not long after we first met... why do you need to test it?"

"Might be same one. Need to ask Yayaka." Pause. "Yayaka achieved half-transformation with necklace. Theorised amorphous." _Tell the truth about freezing? _Unsure. Didn't want to freeze. _But original purpose for visit, to test necklace... _Looked between Cocona and Papika. _Could get to Pure Illusion with them. Can trust them. _"Toto's reaction in other world due to body failing. Made from amorphous... Same for me."

Used hand to pull chain up over my head. Threw in Papika's direction.

Instant cold. Pain. Like frozen nails impaling my bones.

Forced to kneel.

Frost gathered at feet. Thickened. Hunched over. Icy prickles over back. On legs. On arm. Hair and head, dome of cold. Eyes felt dry. Freezing. Solidify... _Can't move..._

"Yuyu!" Cocona and Papika. Worried. Cocona here first.

Warmth. Slight, but there. Put her hands on my shoulders. Face contorted with worry.

"Yuyu! Are you okay?!" Urgent. Desperate question. Small waves of warmth from her body. Slight aura of power from her. Could move a little. Shifted closer to her. Felt a little stronger.

"Yuyu!" Papika. Knelt next to me. Necklace in hands. Arms around me... Warmer than Cocona. Much warmer. Fierce cold going away... Felt Papika's hands move. Putting necklace back on me.

"Papika… stop," I said.

"But why?!" Sounded distressed, "You need it, don't you?! Please, take it!"

"Part of experiment," gave explanation.

"But it hurts you!" Papika worried about me. _Her and Cocona both like Yayaka. They care._

"Hidaka requested experiment. Remove necklace."

"Yuyu..."

"Cocona may have power in Pure Illusion, like Mimi. Might be okay around Cocona without amorphous. Want to test."

Pause.

"Are you sure you want to do this?" Cocona asked.

Nod.

"Papika, take the necklace and stay a few steps back," Cocona ordered.

Papika hesitated. Wanted to deny request. Gave in. "...I'll take it away for the experiment, but only if you promise me, you'll wear it again as soon as it's over, and you never take it off."

Nod. "Promise."

Became colder when Papika moved away. Only took three steps away. Warmth replaced with chill. Biting like teeth… But not completely immobilising. Body was cold. Weak. Warmer near Cocona. With removal of amorphous, could feel power again. Cocona's power. Felt something twitch… _invisible bond? _Looked at Cocona. She returned gaze. Brown eyes seemed… sharp. More alert than usual.

"Can you feel it?" Asked her.

No real reply… Not with voice at least. Brown eyes changed colour. Leaking into blue. Magenta swept along her hair as it lengthened. Power around her grew. Reached me. Coldness chased away, replaced with heat. Stood up. No ice. Melted. Could lift arms… _Arms? _Looked at left sleeve. Could feel… something…

Power went away suddenly. Cocona gasped. Eyes and hair returned to normal. Collapsed.

Warmth around me disappeared. Fell like Cocona. Cold frost forming. Flicking across skin…

Papika's movement immediate. Passed necklace to me. Put on my hand. _Warm… _Slowly, managed to lift arm. Put over head. Wearing again.

"Cocona!" Papika cried her name. Shook her gently. Worry. Arms around her. "Cocona! Are you okay?!"

Felt worry too. _Didn't mean to hurt Cocona-onee-chan…_

No need to worry. Cocona's eyes blinked open. Brown again. Hair short and blue. Looked at Papika.

"Cocona…" Papika sounded happy and sad. Pulled Cocona closer. Cocona's arms went around Papika.

"I'm okay, Papika…" A whisper. Cocona's lips touched Papika's cheek. Both pulled away. Stared deep into the other's eyes. Papika's wet with tears. Cocona's… full of unknown emotion.

Watched, curious. Thought about the flooding world. _Yayaka held me like that…_

Became aware of me again. Cocona's cheeks went pink. Coughed. Spoke: "Yuyu, what was that?"

"Vague question. Don't understand."

"What happened? I transformed without an amorphous—"

"Made of amorphous."

"Did I hurt you?"

"No." The truth. Unexpected. Thought self being used as power source would hurt. Didn't. "Wanted to see if only safe in Pure Illusion with necklace." Results… inconclusive. Was near Cocona. She half-transformed near me. Was warm near her. Similar to Yayaka with necklace. Didn't freeze… But influence of transformation? Or influence of presence? Unable to determine. Can't test again. Promised Papika would keep necklace on now. _Have something to ask Cocona. _"Request for Cocona-onee-chan while in Pure Illusion."

"What is it?"

"Teach me to sword fight."

"Teach you to sword fight?" Cocona sounded confused. "Where did you get an idea like that?"

"Arcade. The fighting game. Papika picked a character. Fought with one sword." Looked at Papika. "Can't defend self without arm." _Defective with bad arm, defective without it…_ Back to Cocona. "Will be able to with sword."

Cocona unsure. Papika liked idea. "You can teach me, too! I wasn't a very good sword fighter in the game. I could probably learn from you as well!"

Cocona hesitant. "But… I don't know how to sword fight."

Confused. "Weapon in Pure Illusion is a sword."

"Well… yes, but it's quite big and heavy. I don't think you can use it, Yuyu. Besides, I can only make one, I can't give you or Papika a sword."

"We can use tree branches!" Papika exclaimed. "Or I can make my own sword, and Yuyu can use a tree branch."

Sudden idea. _Opportunity for second experiment. _"Possible. Theory: Cocona is Mimi's daughter. Has power to manipulate Pure Illusion." Nodded to tree branch. "Can try and make a sword."

Papika momentarily puzzled. Likely not what she meant. Perked up soon. Turned to Cocona. "Can you really do that?"

"I... don't know... But I can try." Walked over to a tree. Shoes left black footprints on cloudy pastel land. Faded after short time. Picked up pale marble branch from ground (two feet long). Seemed to struggle holding it. Saw nearby tree-shard on ground. Took it, and placed in skirt pocket. _Hidaka said 'first batch' when wanting samples. 'Get on Hidaka's good side'. Bring him this. _

Cocona looked at branch a while. Waved it around. Tried taking in one hand, and almost fell. _Lopsided weight? _Branch looked even thickness all sides. Odd one side is heavier. Papika went over, curious. Took branch from hands. Held at either end. Removed one. Branch tipped to ground. Papika swung branch upwards, caught it. Removed other hand. Same happened, branched dipped. Swept hand along branch, to middle. Picked it up, no problems.

"It's heavy in the middle..." She said. Handed it to me. "You try, Yuyu."

Received branch. Moved hand along all parts of object, to confirm Papika's statement. '_Heavy in the middle'. _True. _Unsuitable for close combat? _Stepped away from Papika and Cocona. Tried swinging.

Noise as branch cut through air. _Swing. Slash. Stab._ Stab was silent. Branch almost flew from hands. _Surprise ranged attack maybe. With chain, can retrieve weapon. _

Turned back to Cocona, holding branch out. "Change shape of item."

Brown eyes looked uncertain. Papika put hand on Cocona's shoulder. Nodded and smiled encouragement. Cocona closed eyes, hand over branch...

Nothing happened.

Frowned. "Failed attempt." _Not possible after all? _Dissapointment. Annoyance. _Defective. Will remain defective until Hidaka fixes arm._

_Useless..._

"What if you transform?" Papika asked.

Another idea. _Papika good for ideas. _Spoke, "Suggestion: Apply transformation rules to object."

Papika smiled. Slipped hand around Cocona's on branch, interlocking fingers. Papika's hand on other side of branch too. Cocona put her hand near Papika's free one, linking fingers. She smiled too. Both pressed foreheads together, brown and blue eyes met.

Bright light. Warm, and powerful aura from the two of them. Could feel a bond. Their bond. Strong. Close. Unbreakable. Light was blinding. Pastel colours of land bloomed into each other. Like looking into multicoloured suns. Had to look away, close eyes.

Eventually... light dimmed.

Eyes opened.

Cocona and Papika transformed. Wearing armoured battle dresses. Looking away from each other now, down at branch.

Not branch.

Hands still connected, holding onto mottled grey javelin. Both ends sharp points. Length of weapon, minus middle, was bladed. Swirls of white amongst grey.

"Did... I do this?" Cocona in disbelief.

"It changed!" Papika exclaimed.

Both amazed by outcome. Admit, am also surprised.

Reached for handle near middle with hand. Both let go so I could take it. Eyes widened a little, surprised. _Compatible? _Weapon felt heavy under hand. _Weight no longer in middle. Spread out evenly. Still a little heavy._

Swipe. Slash. Whistles as blades swept through air. _Sharp. _Weapon cumbersome, but may be able to adjust. _For practice anyway._

"Suitable for now." Said out loud. Both girls looked pleased. Cocona summoned sword. Papika put her hands to blue gems on her gauntlets. Little jealous of Papika's transformation. _Gauntlets... Weapon I could use… _Pulled handle out of gem. Blue crystal sword.

All armed now.

"Commence lessons."

* * *

Fighting with Cocona and Papika a different experience to before. Were enemies a few days ago. Now allies. Not fighting against them to harm or claim amorphous. Fighting to practice.

Although made of amorphous and granted power when in Pure Illusion, I was not as fast as previous times. Cocona amorphous only helps so much. They limited their power for an 'even match'.

Kept wanting to punch with arm. Felt arm should be there. Wasn't. Phantom limb. Forced to use marble spear.

Papika's crystal sword had blunt edges. Enthusiasm to sword fight made it difficult to defend attacks from her. Papika didn't land hits, but came close. Wondered if on purpose because of my condition. _Possible. Cocona told us to be careful. _Instructed at times. Papika listened to start with, but tired out fast.

Enthusiasm has advantages and disadvantages.

Javelin took adjusting to. Thrusts and stabs better attacks than swings. Can target weak points. Papika had a number. Didn't hurt though. _Shouldn't. Same side now. _Armour might have protected her, but didn't want to hurt by mistake.

_Yayaka hurt. No physical pain, but hurt. Want to help._

Attacks became less aggressive. Would like to claim due to tiredness, or weakness from surgery.

Truth was worry over Yayaka.

Felt invisible twitch in connection.

"That's enough for now, take a break, you two!" Cocona called. _Relieved._ Not physically tired, but mentally tired. _Break is nice._

Papika slumped over. "Phew! It's a lot harder than it looks!" Flopped onto back, panting. Cocona walked over to her, leaving fading trail of footprints. Praised her for efforts. Gave advice. Papika nodded, tired smile on face. Cocona touched lips to Papika's head. Walked over to me.

"Is this your first time fighting with something that isn't your arm?" Cocona asked, curious.

"No." Sat down. Cocona joined me. Continued to speak: "Asclepius made me for close combat. Experience with other weapons too."

"Then why did you want me to teach you to sword fight?"

"Too long since previously used." Thought back to past. "Only one day experiment. Originally given variety to work with. Then gauntlet was created, to make up for defective arm. Showed talent with gauntlet. Other weapon possibilities disregarded."

"I would have thought they'd let you use whatever you wanted."

"Did. Wanted to use gauntlet. Nice to have working arm." Looked at no arm. _Will be fixed. Hidaka said so. _Impatient. Annoyed.

"It bothers you, doesn't it?"

"Defective with old arm. Trade with Hidaka. Originally only wanted as lab assistant. Requested new arm. Exchanged old arm… But still defective." Bitter. "Asclepius could have made normal arm for me. Didn't. Could fight with gauntlet. No other weapons needed. No more training for other weapons after gauntlet. Only cared about Pure Illusion."

Cocona listened. Seemed to want to speak. Not sure what to say to that. Changed subject. "So, what's it like at school for you?"

"Seldom go to school. It's okay. Classmates friendly" _when they spoke to me. _"Toto more popular than me. Academically, both get good results."

"What are your last names?" Cocona asked.

Tilted head to side. Odd question. Answered. "Kokomine."

Cocona blinked. _Startled? _"That's my last name…"

Nod. "Asclepius chosen. Made from Mimi's amorphous. Asclepius gave us her last name." Small smile. "Cocona-onee-chan."

"You don't have to call me that, if you don't want to. Just Cocona is fine."

"Will consider it."

Pause.

Twitch in connection again. Same as when Cocona stopped training.

"Question for me?" Asked her. Didn't seem to want to ask herself.

"How did—" response cut off. "Well, yes. Are you okay, Yuyu?"

_Asking if I'm okay? _Unusual. Only happened when injured normally. Didn't know how to react.

Cocona continued, "I mean… You fought well today, very well, for someone who hasn't used a weapon in a long time…" Sounded nervous. "But you…" Gulped, "You seemed distracted, or like you had something on your mind, and I uh… wondered if you wanted to talk about it?"

_'I never asked to go to Pure Illusion! I never asked to be taken by Asclepius, and forced into a world where I nearly burnt to death on arrival! I watched ten other kids die... and there was nothing I could do to save them! ...Scientists _never _care!' _

Put hand to chest. Heart ached. _Want to help. Can't help. Defective arm. Defective support... Toto would know how to help if he was here. Wasn't there. Isn't here. _

_Only me. Can't help. _"Yayaka hurt... Worried."

"Yayaka's hurt?" Cocona concerned. Sounded urgent. Papika looked upset too.

"Not physical hurt. Hurt by past, working for Asclepius. Memories."

"I can understand that." Papika's voice. Both turned to her. Person-shaped black mark on land where she was lying down before. Footprints behind her, standing near us now. Sat down. "Asclepius isn't a good place to work for."

Looked at Papika. Head tilted to side. "Papika... Papikana?" Names similar. _Related? _

Papika nodded. "Yeah. That's me."

"...The same Papikana?" Confused. "You're fourteen. Papikana was nineteen when escaped from Asclepius facility. Followed Mimi into Pure Illusion. Lost."

"I was chosen by Asclepius from one of many to be a partner to go to Pure Illusion with Mimi. They didn't treat anyone very well there. The only thing on Earth Mimi knew was the room they isolated her in. She knew there were other people, but that was about it. She didn't even know what a lake was, and she couldn't believe me when I told her how big it was... I shared the world I knew with her... and she shared the world she knew with me.

"The only people at Asclepius who were nice to her were Doctor Salt and myself. Mimi would take me to Pure Illusion, and Doctor Salt was a researcher, the son of the head scientist at Asclepius. I think he fell in love with Mimi, because I told him how she never saw a lake, and Salt spoke to his father to give us all time to see it...

"Time went by, and Mimi got pregnant. She didn't want any child of hers to have the same fate she did, so she wanted to run away from Asclepius. I said I'd come with her, because she was my best friend, and I didn't want any child of Mimi's to be locked up in a room all their life either... But Asclepius caught us as we were trying to escape, and Mimi tried to save Cocona the only way she knew how..."

Papika's voice became sad as she spoke. "Mimi gave into her darker side to keep Cocona safe. She attacked Asclepius' base and took her daughter into Pure Illusion, where they could never find her… and I followed her because something was wrong with Mimi, and I wanted to help..." She swallowed. Voice became strained. " I leapt in the Hole after her, and when she saw me… she gave me Cocona. I wanted to ask why, but… the fear in her eyes... There seemed to be something really wrong with her, and she was…_ afraid_. She let a darker side of her take over, and I think that was the last action of the good Mimi, trusting me with her daughter, before she became lost in Pure Illusion… and lost in her darker self.

"I ended up alone, in a hollowed-out tree, caged by its roots. I don't know what happened exactly, but I think the good side of Mimi saved me, like how she trusted me with Cocona. I was stuck there for a long time and lost my memories. I grew older and older... And then when I would have died, I felt... something. I remember after that, that I was made young again. A little kid... I think it was Mimi, giving me another chance at life… And in that time, I remember, there was someone outside of my cage... She was only there sometimes, but she was there. Watching over me... I thought at first it was Mimi. It looked a lot like her, but she was different.

"It turns out she was the same age as me, and she'd visit from time to time. I could feel something in me. A... pull. My memories were lost, but something about her smell… It was familiar. A good, warm smell. I felt drawn to her. She wasn't bad. I could feel it. She was just curious about the girl in the cage. I couldn't remember anything at all, but the girl who kept coming to see me. Then one day, I was hungry. It was the first time I'd felt hunger in so long… But she was there. She found some fruit and gave it to me, and asked if I was feeling better. It helped a little… but I think I ate a bit too much and gave myself a stomach ache!" She smiled. "And the girl said she'd stay with me until I was completely better, because she didn't want me to be lonely... She was so kind." Papika took Cocona's hand, and turned to her. "She _is _kind." Pressed her forehead to Cocona's. Cocona's cheeks went pink "I think Mimi made us the same age, so I could protect her daughter and keep her safe. All I know is, I'm happy she did. I loved my gentle Mimi, but I love, love, _love _my dear Cocona even more..." Both were smiling, content. Happy.

_Papikana survived... Ran away to Pure Illusion. Reborn as Papika. _Unusual, but made sense. Smiled. _Happy together... 'love'? Sounds nice..._ _Wouldn't mind something like that… _Felt pang of something in chest, watching them. Smile gone. Made me remember, being trapped in a dimension within Pure Illusion that reacted to Cocona's emotions. Yayaka and Papika were outsideof the dimension. Fighting over Cocona I think. Papika nad Yayaka sat back-to-back. Yayaka spoke about me and Toto…

_And about Cocona—_

Sudden noise. Quiet. Thought I heard faint voice. Looked around. Nothing. _Odd. _

Papika spoke again, concerning original statement of mine. "Yayaka will be okay, Yuyu. I worked for Asclepius, like Yayaka, and I'm okay, aren't I?" Smiled in attempt at reassurance. My face remained blank.

Cocona added, "Asclepius isn't around anymore, either. Yayaka isn't alone. We're all here for her, and we'll help her how we can."

_'Help her how we can'. _Nod. "Want to help Yayaka."

"We can do that. We can... ummm..." Cocona seemed lost for suggestions.

Papika had an idea, "We can go see Irodori-senpai!"

Cocona wasn't sure. "How could that help?"

"Yuyu could paint something for Yayaka! A gift to let her know she's thinking about her!"

Tilted head to side, thinking. _Painting? _Could give it a try. Yayaka expressed interest in my sewing back in Pure Illusion. Said it was good. Wonder if talent translates to painting... "Would like to try."

"Well... Yayaka _did _seem to like the illustrations in my story books when we were younger..." Cocona turned to Papika. "But Irodori-senpai said she couldn't be bothered with painting last time we saw her at school, are we sure that would be a good idea?"

"We ran into her in town, remember? She said any of us could drop by the art room any time we wanted!"

"Can try." Wanted to sound enthusiastic. Was monotone. _Annoying._

"But what about Yuyu's arm? Won't Irodori-senpai wonder why that's missing now?" Cocona asked.

Mouth became a thin line. _Irritating…_ but has a point. _Was last seen with two arms. Being seen now with one… _But Cocona continued talking. "We don't have to go right away, I suppose… We could give Hidaka some time to build your new arm, and if it's ready before Yayaka comes back to Flip Flap, then we can go there. If Irodori doesn't want to teach you, I think she'll be fine to let you have a look at the equipment, or try using some of the supplies" Cocona turned to me, "You and Toto look about the age where you'd be moving on to a middle school, we could say we're showing you around. We can talk to Yayaka for you while we're at school too. We'll tell her you're worried about her."

_'Moving on to middle school'... _strange thought. Haven't aged since created. Never had to think about another school. Asclepius sorted that out. Might change with Flip Flap… '_We can talk to Yayaka for you while we're at school too. We'll tell her you were worried about her.'_ Papika and Cocona worried about me earlier, when removed necklace. _Knowing someone worries about you. Knowing someone cares… Can be nice. _Nodded.

"It's decided then!" Papika stood, fists up, determined. "When Yuyu has a new arm, we'll all go see Irodori-senpai at the art room!"

* * *

_Authors note__: Sorry if this chapter ends suddenly, I didn't really know what else I could add/how to end it so I've just sorta left it in what I feel is an awkward place. I'm not happy with this chapter, it's been completed for over 2 weeks to be honest, and I wanted to try and sort it before posting it but... I'm not sure, I'm gonna leave it as-is as I feel it establishes too much to discard or completely re-write for what I have in mind._

_I __only had 3 background shots to work with for creating Sayuri's house, as it is seen briefly in episode 13 of the anime. Ok, I don't know if it's a house or an apartment, but the Flip Flappers Pure Memorial book that comes with the collector's edition of the Blu Rays says 'house', but I hardly mention the size of anything, so I think I kinda ended up making it an apartment... _

_Also, good GOSH it was difficult/slow progress writing Yuyu's section(s). You'd think with her using less words it'd be easier, but it isn't. I'm used to writing a lot, and I kinda ramble when I write, so having to force myself to cut down on that and try and be as minimal as possible for Yuyu's sections... it's a challenge to say the least. I'm trying not to make her parts/sentences/thoughts too long in places because I'm a bit worried I may make her too much like Yayaka. I'm hoping I managed to pull that off, and continue to do so, because I have a number of Yuyu sections of the story in mind._

_A NOTE ABOUT CHARACTER AGES: I have no idea how old most of the characters in Flip Flappers are, it doesn't really say, not even in the Pure Illusion Memorial book, so I'm just taking a guess and going by the sort of ages/things in Sailor Moon (the 90's anime specifically). In Sailor Moon, the characters start off 14 years old and are in middle school (the age I imagine Cocona and Papika are). In the third season the characters in Sailor Moon are 15 and working towards getting into highschool (Irodori being a 'senpai' to Cocona suggests she's in the year above, and therefore 15), and after succeeding in entrance exams are in highschool at 16. The Twins I picture being in their last year of Japanese Elementry school, so around 12 or so. Nyunyu... I have no idea about honestly, maybe 9/10 years old? She's definitely younger than the twins_


	8. Chapter 7

_Yuyu_

School today… Supposed to be. Hidaka called, saying I was sick. Not true. Can't get sick. Real reason: questions would be raised about lack of arm.

Problem being resolved.

Toto and Nyunyu here too, all 'sick'. No school for them either. Had things to work on.

"You guys really went to Pure Illusion wearing _these?_" Hidaka asked, indicating armour. Heavily damaged from past adventures. Self-repaired.

"Can withstand gunshots. Temperature regulation," Toto listed good qualities.

"Well, yes, but aren't they getting a little old now? You two have worn them for years, after all, correct?" Both nodded. "And Nyunyu's… doesn't look very suitable for combat at all."

"Yayaka's needs repairs," stated. "Should be priority." _Being regular human. Unable to withstand temperatures like Toto and I. Can sweat. Lots of experience, but not made for combat. Made for running. Speed booster faulty. Most likely to go to Pure Illusion… _Lots of reasons.

"_All _of your stuff needs repairs!" Slammed hand down on table. Screws hopped off desk onto floor. Shower of 'clinks'. Hidaka appeared annoyed. But face became grin. Glasses flashed. "Which is exactly why I've called all off you of school this week…"

Most of day spent designing new armour. Hidaka left three of us alone to design. No time for construction. Details important, need everything we can get. Could take part with one arm. Sketched designs. Toto made notes. Pointed out things forgotten (breathing masks for all). Nyunyu watched. Came up with suggestions, but mostly illogical. Armour made of guns. Toto said why not useful ("dangerous for allies"). Stretchy robot arms ("Possible, but cumbersome"). Dimensional pocket for cicadas and bug nets ("Waste of pockets". Thankful he said no to that one. Dislike insects...) Backpack containing decoy of false zombie.

"Unlikely to help," Toto getting annoyed with Nyunyu now. Voice has hints of harshness.

"But the enemy might aim for that instead of us!"

"Bigger target. Heavy. Difficult to carry,"

"I wanna add it!"

Toto accidentally nudged piece of Illusion Bronze. Was resting my arm against other. CLANG! Nyunyu covered ears. Felt, more than heard sound. Toto also immune. Spoke. "Not needed! Want pocket for keychain from Ruri-chan, but unnecessary! Keychain not needed for combat!"

Looked at him. Tilted head to side. "Unusual request."

Toto looked down, face blank. Cheeks slightly pink. _Not intended to mention?_ Likely, but heard request. Added pocket to Toto's armour sketch, listed as 'weapons pouch'. Looked at him and nodded.

"What did nyu do?!" Nyunyu speaking. "That was loud! Nyu two weren't effected at all!"

Accidental discovery: Illusion Bronze could deafen enemies. Anyone in contact with metal unaffected.

Tested various combinations of people in contact with Bronze and without. Confirmation.

"Noise grenades!" Nyunyu said, hand high in air.

"Useful idea," Toto said. Smile twitched at his mouth. Noted suggestion.

Day carried on like that. Armour designs almost finalised. Hidaka wanted to check over. See available supplies, and make adjustments accordingly. Toto and Nyunyu sent away. He spoke to me.

"I was working on your new arm while you guys were designing your armour. I'm needing to use parts from your old gauntlet though, to put it together, so you won't be able to use it anymore."

Little sad to hear that. Liked gauntlet. Suddenly, curious: "Why did you request biological arm, as part of trade?"

"It's not every day, you get the chance to study and experiment on living tissue of an amorphous-made human." Glasses flashed as spoke. Little wary of Hidaka, after Yayaka's outburst. Hidaka continued, "Besides, I can't exactly give you a new arm, if you still have the old one hanging there, useless. This way, I can have an example right in front of me, what to build and replicate—well, improve upon, not replicate entirely, I don't think Yayaka would forgive me if I gave you a new arm, and it didn't work…" Voice trailed off as he spoke.

"Upset about Yayaka?"

"I feel bad… I'm not one of the scientists who did any of those things to her, but I feel I should make it up to her somehow, to show not all of us scientists are bad guys."

"Giving me new arm."

"Yeah, I know I'm doing that, but I don't think she's going to be too happy if she finds out I still have your old one hidden away somewhere to experiment on. I'm a scientist, I'm curious by nature…"

'_Make it up to her somehow'. _Hidaka kept talking, but mind stuck on that line.

"Yayaka likes explosives and wires."

"Explosives and wires, huh...?" Smile crept along his face. Starting to understand why Yayaka is cautious of him. _But will be working with him. Can make sure he won't go out of line. _He picked up designs and had a look at them. "So, this is what you've come up with… It looks like a cross between riot police armour and something people in an American school marching band would wear…" Continued to mumble to self like that for a while. Eventually…

"I think we can work with these designs, Yuyu. We'll start building them tomorrow!"

* * *

_Yayaka_

Sayuri asked me if I wanted to go to school this week, or if I might have found it too stressful with everything I've been dealing with lately. Honestly, I hadn't even thought about school, even though the only clothes I really had on me was my uniform. _If I go to school, I'll probably have to deal with mock exams again, think about schools to move on to, and also see Cocona and Papika. Seeing Papika might be fine, but Cocona... __**((Switch with me)) **__I'm not sure I really trust myself around at the moment... _Heck, I'm not even sure seeing Papika would be too good of an idea. It might all be fine, but she'd make a fuss of me if I went there... Same for Cocona actually, now I think about it, but Cocona would be a lot more subdued, whereas I think I'd have to pry Papika off of me with a crowbar for a little peace and quiet.

"Can you call in sick for me?" I asked her. It felt really weird to be asking someone to do that for me. Normally I just plain ditched class. Sometimes Asclepius called in, posing as a parent or a few, but most of the time they didn't bother. I guess because Sayuri actually seems friendly, or maybe because this'd be a more normal thing to do in this situation.

She seemed pretty relaxed about it, saying it was no problem, and introduced herself as my aunt... Which, again, was pretty weird.

"Thanks," I said after she finished the call.

"Not a problem. How are you doing?"

"I'm... not sure. Better I guess?"

"That's good" Sayuri said, smiling. I wished I had more of an answer for her, but I really didn't know how I was feeling. Well, I still found it pretty odd to have woken up in a real house, after having fallen asleep in a real house. I mean, I don't think Sayuri would have somehow tried to sneak me back to Flip Flap overnight (I wouldn't have put it past Hidaka to send Buu to come and fly me back to base though), but still, I'm not in some stupid lab or research facility. I don't have to worry about any experiments on me, or being sent off to Pure Illusion…

_People live like this? _The idea just seemed so… _weird_ to me.

Once again, most of the time spent here was watching films with Sayuri, although towards the end of one of them, Sayuri jumped up, as if she had been struck by inspiration. I asked her what that was all about, but all she said was 'I'll be back in a minute' so I sat there and watched the credits roll for the film we just watched. It was called 'TRON' and it was about some kid who ended up stuck in a computer game or something and he had to go up against an evil computer… Or something. Honestly, I found it a little hard to pay attention because all I could think when I was watching it was how much it looked like Pop's world in Pure Illusion. If you told me he had a hand in designing the movie set, or took any part in creation of the film otherwise, I'd have no trouble believing you.

Sayuri eventually returned, holding a grey box and a couple of things that made me think of the controllers for the Playstation me and Cocona had played on, but they had less buttons to them…

Actually, it was pretty similar to a Playstation in a lot of ways now I looked at it. Controllers connected to a grey box by black cables, a slot for games, coloured buttons…

"I forgot I had this!" Sayuri exclaimed, excited. "It's been so long since I've played it. Have you ever played a Super Famicom, Yayaka-chan?"

I'd guess a 'Super Famicom' was the name of the grey box Sayuri was carrying, and I replied, "No. I've never even heard of it."

Sayuri looked at me as if I'd just thrown a brick at her laptop. "You've never heard of a Super Famicom before?" She didn't even give me time to answer, as she went into a little geeky rant about how it was a really popular home video game console, and its predecessor supposedly saved the whole video game market in the West, by being that revolutionary.

When Sayuri got it hooked up to the TV and showed me one of the game cartridges she had, I didn't really understand what the fuss was about. I mean, the games looked nice enough, but they were so… pixelated. I know that was probably due to the console's age, but still, compared to everything we played at the arcade, it was a little difficult to see why this was so popular at the time…

Apparently Super Mario World was a classic and… It was fine, I guess? I didn't quite understand what the big deal was. The colours were nice, and the game looked appealing enough, but… I don't think it was my sort of thing.

I told this to Sayuri, who seemed a little startled at my reaction, but suggested trying another game instead. She turned the console off and pressed the eject button, causing the cartridge to pop out of the slot, a little like a toaster. She put another one in, which I believe was called 'Akumajo: Dracula' (Or Super Castlevania 4 as it's known by in the West).

This one was still kinda pixelated, but graphically? It was a little limited, sure, but it seemed a lot more epic than Mario was. You played a guy with a whip, which reminded me a little of my grappling wire, and you were basically going through Dracula's castle to kill him, while fighting ghouls and monsters along the way. This one was a _lot _more frustrating than Mario, but the design of the game, and the castle backgrounds… I found it easier to lose myself in this than I did in any of Sayuri's films. I'm guessing because it was a lot more interactive than them. Here, I'd press a button and my character would strike a monster with his whip, it felt like I was lashing out with my grappling wire. While I was playing, I started to wonder why I'd never thought to use my wire like that at all. Okay, it might just be in the game that it's that powerful, but still, it's another way to use your equipment, and it'd be handy for future reference…

…_If I go back to Pure Illusion at all. _

I kinda became less enthusiastic about the game with that thought, and I think Sayuri must have thought I wanted to try another one, so she changed the game again, this time to one I vaguely recognised.

"I think I've played this one before…" I said, as I watched a demo of red, yellow, green, and blue blobs fall down across the screen. They came in groups of two, three, or sometimes in a great blob of four, and if you connected four or more of the same colours together, you'd clear a part of your screen, and fill up the opponents with black garbage blobs. If you were good and you got a combo or a few, you could completely devastate your opponent and screw them over before they have the chance to save themselves, or even blink.

"You recognise Puyo Puyo?" Sayuri asked.

I nodded. "Yeah, Cocona borrowed a Playstation once, and we played this game. Or one a lot like it." I felt a little smile sneak on my face as I remembered it. "I wasn't very good at it at all, but Cocona played, and she managed to get pretty far."

"Oh?" Sayuri smiled, interested to hear more. I didn't really have anything else to say, so I ended up just standing around and feeling a bit awkward… At least until Sayuri spoke again. "Have you ever played against each other?"

"No, we just took turns. Cocona would thrash me if we played against each other."

"Hmmm…" Sayuri sat down in front of the console and picked up the controller for player 2. "Do you reckon you can beat me?"

"Probably not, it's been a long time since I've played."

"Me too, so we'll be even."

I wasn't too fond of Puyo Puyo from what I remember playing of it back in the day, but it's been a few years since then, so maybe I'll like it a bit more this time around. I admit I'm a little curious to know what it's like trying to play this game against someone instead of taking turns with them.

"Okay then," I said.

"Winner chooses what's for dinner!" Sayuri declared, before we started up our game…

* * *

_Yuyu_

Armour construction started after some adjustments to notes made. Apart from looks, armour has similar features to old Asclepius gear. Toto got to work right away. Nyunyu observed for first hour before taking part. Hidaka was away, making new arm.

Heard speech and noise as Toto and Nyunyu worked.

"Nyunyu, request assistance."

"Okay!"

_Annoyed._ Could take part if had arm. No arm. Could only sit and watch. _Useless._

"Hold this still while sewing."

"Can do!"

_Would be able to help with arm. Am better at sewing._

"Switch with me"

_Would like to be able to. Can participate then._

Voices drowned out after that point. Enough to lose understanding of speech. Not enough to dismiss completely. Admit Nyunyu is helpful in situation, but… Wish I could work. Sat reading a book. Trying not to think about activities. Difficult to ignore. Presence required in room. Made notes and designed armour after all, important everything is remembered. _Can't participate otherwise without arm. _

Wonder how Yayaka is. Hopefully better. Would like to give her a painting, but no access to art room yet. Still need arm. Turned page in book, annoyed. Toto glanced at me. Maybe picked up on feelings. Concern is nice, but also irritating. _Forget I'm here. Looking at me reminds me I'm here. Reminds me of uselessness. _

_Defective. _

Slammed book shut, and left on desk. Grabbed nearby paper and pens. _Can't paint… But can draw and write. Focus on activity. Focus…_

_Focus and forget…_

* * *

_Yayaka_

We ended up getting pretty caught up playing Puyo Puyo. Sayuri might not have played for a long time, like I have, but she must've played this game an awful lot back in the day, because she beat me 95% of the time. It went pretty much how I'd expect most of it would have went if I was playing against Cocona, although if I was playing against Cocona, I'd be playing with her to keep her happy, rather than because I kept getting my ass kicked and wanted revenge, and was stubborn enough to play for an hour before I finally won. Even then, I think Sayuri decided to go easy on me when I finally got my victory, but I didn't care, "I finally beat you!" and I was _so _happy about that.

"You must be pretty determined to choose what to have for dinner then," She chuckled.

"What?" I asked, genuinely confused. It took a few seconds to remember why the hell we started playing this game in the first place, or at least what Sayuri was talking about, and was about to say something when a sudden loud noise, which made me think a little of the alarms in the Asclepius building, echoed through the house.

I leapt to my feet and put my hands to my hips, even though I didn't have my rocket belt, and glared around, trying to find out where the hell the noise had come from.

Sayuri seemed pretty puzzled by my reaction. "It's just the doorbell, Yayaka-chan," she said, calmingly, as she got up to answer it.

_Just a doorbell. Of course… _I relaxed, feeling a little silly for my over-reaction. I've only heard a doorbell a few times in my life (believe it or not, crazy cultists don't often get people knocking on the door for deliveries) and those only times were at Cocona's house, so I've never had to deal with anyone there. Thank frick for that, because I'd have no idea what the hell to say—

"It's for you!" Sayuri said, peering around the doorframe.

"What the…" Maybe it's because I was still alert from a sudden noise, I hadn't heard in friggin' years, but my heart was pounding. _Who could it be? Has Cocona come to check up on me?_ That thought made me a little more nervous. _I shouldn't be thinking like this still… Cocona's chosen Papika… But she can still visit me as just a friend, right?_

It was a little surreal in a way, to see only Toto standing at the door, partly because he was alone, Yuyu wasn't with him. Also, because like I said, being part of a cultist organisation before, having a house guest was pretty odd.

"What're you doing here, Toto?" My voice came out grouchier than it should have, but that's probably because if one of the twins was around, normally that would mean I'd be off to Pure Illusion, and I had no plans to be going back so soon when I'd finally gotten a break from everything. _Flip Flap have more than enough people to go there anyway, they don't need me right now._

"Message from Cocona and Papika: Noticed you haven't been at school. Hoped you were okay." His head tipped to the side. "Are you?"

It took me a second to respond because I wasn't used to Toto asking me that sort of thing. "Yeah, Toto, I'm fine. You can tell them there's no need to worry about me." I smiled, and hoping I sounded convincing.

I'm not so sure I succeeded, as he didn't nod at me, and instead righted his head, his stare becoming a little more intense. "Am also concerned. Anything you want to talk about?"

"What?" _Toto's concerned about me too? _I really should stop being so surprised by everything the amorphous kids say and do by now, but I couldn't help being thrown off by Toto's statement. "I said I'm fine, Toto!" although, like before, my voice was more aggressive than I meant it to be. I took a deep breath and repeated the sentence in a calmer tone. "I'm fine, Toto. Really, I am. Sayuri's taking good care of me here. It's… a little strange actually."

I wondered why I even said that last part out loud, but finally I said something that seemed to be enough for Toto to nod, satisfied. "Also, here with a report," he said. "New gear for Pure Illusion under construction. Should be ready by the time you're back." Before I could ask any more about that, he held out his hand, which had a neatly folded piece of paper in it. "Finally, message from Yuyu."

I blinked, as I reached out for the paper and took it from him. It was folded almost perfectly, and only had my name on the front of it. I frowned. _Why is Yuyu sending me a message by paper, when she could just tell Toto and get him to tell me? _

"Didn't look. Don't know what it's about," Toto said, answering a question I was about to ask. He turned away then, about to leave, and looked at me over his shoulder. "Any messages for Flip Flap?"

I couldn't think of anything, so I just shook my head. Toto nodded, confirming he'd seen me, and spoke again. "Will be at Flip Flap. Contact if assistance is needed."

I watched for a while as he turned a corner and left, and even then, I stared at the place I saw him last, trying to work out what had just happened…

* * *

_Yuyu_

Gave Toto note to give to Yayaka. Says he delivered it yesterday when he visited. Asked if Yayaka had read it.

"No." He said. _Disappointing… _A reply would have been nice. Can't be helped.

Spent most of today sitting around again. New armour was coming along well. Nyunyu was eager to learn, and became better at sewing than Toto. _Useful. Good. Sooner armour is ready, sooner can test in Pure Illusion._

While designing armour, came up with an idea. If Toto's reaction to Pure Illusion was struggling to breathe, then a special mask with an air filter would be a permanent addition to his outfit. For me, an improved a temperature regulator. Promised Papika would wear the amorphous necklace, but if necklace was lost or taken away, then only source of heat would be armour. Armour harder to remove than necklace.

Solutions have been thought of, but success not certain. May only provide temporary relief from symptoms. Toto gave all of us a number of Hole devices. Showed us how to operate them in case of emergency. Little difficult for me with one arm, but managed…

Was about all I could do while there. Play with device. Didn't activate, but rolled it around when got bored of writing or drawing. Provided little entertainment, but was better than thinking. _Useless without arm. Defective. Can't help…_

_((" …ith me..."))_

Thought I heard a voice, not belonging to anyone at Flip Flap again. Odd. Happened in Pure Illusion. Was nothing…

THUMP!

Metal parts landed in front of me on the table. Various parts. Could see… shapes of parts. Thin segmented rods attached to a larger segmented slab. Wires threaded through brackets, as if tendons… _A hand?_

"I figure you can help me build this," came voice from above. Looked up. Magenta hair. Glasses. Smile. _Hidaka. _"You're going to be the one wearing it after all. Come on, assistant, I'm sure those two will be fine without you."

_'Would be fine without you'_ Correct... But not what wanted to hear. _Fed up with defectiveness..._

_But Hidaka requests help. _

_Can help Hidaka._

Ushered me out of room, along with parts. Went to another room in Flip Flap. Another workshop. Hidaka has many. Has many ideas for projects and ideas, keeps various things required for experiments in different rooms. Makes sense. Also handy, as it keeps his messes in rooms rather than around the base. Sayuri said that when me and Toto joined…

* * *

_Nyunyu was first. Joined Flip Flap immediately after Asclepius' destruction. Toto and I joined soon after. Thought Salt would dislike idea of Asclepius workers in his base, but didn't seem to mind._

_Found him and Sayuri near a machine in Asclepius base. 'Elpis'. Abandoned project. Supposed to allow single humans to enter Pure Illusion without need of amorphous… That was the hope. Originally failed. Corrupted mind of person using it. _

_Toto and I first created by the head priest as companions for Yayaka upon her initial return from Pure Illusion. Needed biological samples from Yayaka to attune to her easily. Our mission: to collect the rest of the amorphous for ultimate power. Didn't care what for or why. Made for amorphous collecting. Only reason to exist. _

_Spent years with Yayaka searching Pure Illusion, and finding nothing. Main mission was still to find amorphous, but spending time with Yayaka… She expressed an interest in more than just amorphous. Found wonders in the many worlds we went to. Didn't understand at first. Pure Illusion and Asclepius base all I knew. Various worlds and mysterious dimensions were normal._

_Eventually Asclepius enrolled Toto and I in school. Wondered if lack of amorphous found was due to poor bond with Yayaka. At school, could learn what normal human life was like. Some things there were normal for me: Tests, exams, scientific experiments… Teachers praised our knowledge in the latter subject. Didn't think anything of it. Other things at school were unusual activities, not a part of life at Asclepius. _

_Art was interesting. Making pencil or paint records of real-life objects and details onto paper and other materials. Have an eye for detecting weak points in enemies. When applied to art… so much detail revealed. Tiny beauty and uniqueness in every object you looked at. Fascinating. Pure Illusion after doing art... Began to understand Yayaka's interest in Pure Illusion... and became curious about Yayaka herself._

_Home Ec. Sewing and cooking… Craft projects were interesting, but difficult with one arm. With assistance, showed skill. Cooking... Didn't eat, but food creations were always praised. When made cream bread, took some back to base. Head priest took it and ate it himself. When Yayaka encountered later that day (she was smaller then. Younger), had crumbs on her face, and licked her fingers. Asclepius rations never left her face covered in crumbs. Yayaka hid her hands behind her back, face angry. Demanded what I was looking at. Walked on and left her behind. Sight of her was amusing. I smiled._

_And music..._

_Music was wonderful._

_Familiar with hums of machinery and natural sounds of Pure Illusion… Music was very different to most of those. Could take sounds from different eras of Earth's history, and play it today. Centuries of ancient voices and instruments… Sounds and melodies from hundreds of years past, and new ones I've never heard before. A world I was never fully aware of, but one I could experience and become a part of. How things have changed… and how listening could make you feel… alive. _

_Am alive, but never _felt _alive. Not until hearing music._

_Yayaka and Toto differed from me in that respect. Toto enjoyed biology and science. Logical with working at Asclepius. Yayaka had very different interests to him, being a regular human._

_She liked playing sports._

_Sports were… similar to Pure Illusion in a way. Lots of running. In Pure Illusion, to quicken search for amorphous, and escape deadly monsters and traps. In school? Things like baseball and soccer. Didn't understand what the purpose was until Yayaka was the same age as me and Toto._

_Ended up all in the same school at one point, only for a short while. Asclepius was upset at Yayaka's failure to recruit Cocona. Sent Toto and I to her school to aid her. Didn't directly interfere. Mostly stayed out of sight._

_Was only for a few days. Played soccer with Yayaka one day. Three of us on the same team. Yayaka was good, showed skill, and was fast. Pure Illusion skills must have translated well to sports. Soccer was only sport I could really play. Wasn't goalie, so didn't need arms. Teachers didn't like me playing soccer. Yayaka persuaded them to let me play._

_Yayaka gave commands to her team. Directed them. Moved swiftly, agile. Hopped around opponents in feints, misleading them. Showed talent. Teams under her leadership often won games. Other team showed no such direction or knowledge of available players…_

_In Pure Illusion next, when up against a tough enemy, began to recognise traits of this in combat. Realised importance of sports: communication and teamwork. Admired Yayaka for her talents. _

_Yayaka didn't talk to me or Toto much then. Gave orders. Sometimes commented or asked questions… But more recently, started to talk more. Thanked us for saving her in Pure Illusion against the horde of Iron Boys and spider monster. She seemed… different then. _

_Was never thanked by Yayaka before. Behaviour seemed odd. Could only ask... "Why?" in response... But she expressed gratitude. Most interaction with people, other than Toto, was limited. Often only spoken to when given an order, or being told about school activities. Other students in class tended to leave me alone. Didn't bother me... But now someone spoke to me. Expressed sincere emotion towards me. Yayaka became defensive at my question, but I wasn't upset. _

_"Strange. Are you Yayaka?" Toto asked, as a joke. He seemed better at understanding humans than I did. No trouble making friends at school, despite similar traits to me. Yayaka seemed taken aback by his question. Her reaction amused me. ANot just because of Toto's comment... Began to see Yayaka differently then. Originally, saw her as a leader. A commander. Notghing more. Even when younger, in Pure Illusion, she gave orders. Made descisions. Toto and I followed her and did as she bid in search for amorphous... But seeing her now... Thought about time I caught her after stealing head priest's cream bread. Saw that same Yayaka standing in front of me. _

_More to her than just a commander._

_Maybe there's more to life than amorphous, too._

_Began to think differently from that point. Next adventure in Pure Illusion was world of floating stone blocks. Yayaka almost fell into void upon arrival. Felt panic. Sudden. Never felt that before. Would have died if I hadn't grabbed her. Thought terrified me. …But didn't know why. Have fought monsters. Came back in bad condition before, on brink of death, but lost to a void? Didn't want to lose Yayaka to a void. _

_Realised didn't want to lose Yayaka at all._

_Next adventure was a school, like ones in real world. All-girls school. Toto was out of place. Yayaka seemed to notice that. She took my hand on the first day. It was warm. Firm grip… _

_Felt something._

_We were physically connected then. Never felt that before. Physical contact, yes, but… holding hands… Heart beat quickly. Nervous. Didn't know what to do. Her hair was gold in old dusty corridors. Shining beacon of colour. Eyes a rich purple, full of light. Wanted to look at her. Also hard to look at her. Heartrate increased whenever I did so…_

_Especially when hair was braided. Like ropes of golden sunshine._

_Yayaka assisted with sewing and other activities there. Let me listen to music when we passed by the room and I asked to stay. Asclepius would have dismissed a comment like that. Yayaka didn't._

_But later, at the clock tower… Yayaka trapped at the bottom. Wanted to help, but could feel pull from amorphous… like a magnet. Would move away, could feel tug, trying to bring me closer. Wanted to help. Couldn't help…_

_Other adventures too. Wandering replica of home with Toto. Encountered different Yayaka's then… Similar, but not my Yayaka. Toto tried to contact her phone, plan a meeting spot. Eventually, found her again... but with another me. _

_Another Yuyu._

_Hated that Yuyu..._

_Hate._

_Ended up trapped beneath ice. Under water, drowning in a frozen lake. Toto tried to rescue me. No success. Yayaka watched at the side... I left her at clock tower... Left her to die. Wanted to save her then, but amorphous pull was strong. If not for Cocona and Papika, Yayaka would have died._

_She must have hated me. Wanted to leave me there..._

_But she didn't. She used amorphous and saved me._

_She cares._

…_But had to turn against her. Or pretend to._

_Toto and I overheard head priest. Nyunyu's creation was complete. Could kill Yayaka now. Couldn't risk her telling world about amorphous or Pure Illusion. Couldn't risk her going to Flip Flap or disrupting Asclepius' plans. Suspicious of her for a while. Last chance was given…_

_Had to save Yayaka…_

_Had to hurt Yayaka to save her. Cocona and Papika took her to Flip Flap. She was safe. Relief…_

_Asclepius wanted Cocona. Yayaka was taken to Flip Flap. Two trackers in their base. Could finally locate accurately. Found them. Felt pull of amorphous from Papika. Wanted to chase after. Magnetic pull. _Really _wanted to chase…_

_But Yayaka had caught me. Wire from a robot's head. Was kept still. _

_Thankful for that. More than she knows._

_Eventually, had to go separate ways, due to Toto's head injury. Ended up at Asclepius base. Only place he could recover. Flip Flap didn't have equipment, and Toto didn't have data._

_Watched the head priest die. Demanded to aid him over aiding Toto. Told him "Shut up." Was what Yayaka would say. Yayaka cared about us. Head priest didn't. He was overcome by Mimi's white clovers._

_Good._

_Eventually, Toto recovered. Went to leave… But found two people at base. Not Asclepius workers. A man and a woman. Heard talk of Asclepius worker who abandoned base and created Flip Flap. Doctor Salt. The man matched Doctor Salt's description. He knew about Elpis and how it worked. Woman must have been an assistant of his._

_Looked at Toto. Wasn't sure what to do._

"_Asclepius is dead. Nothing here for us anymore. Could join Flip Flap."_

_Idea seemed strange. Wasn't sure Toto's decision was wise, but followed him. Spoke to Salt._

"_Request: Join Flip Flap."_

_Expected resistance. Expected hostility._

"_That's fine. We need more people for our research anyway."_

_Was shocked with his response. Asked why he said yes._

"_Asclepius is gone, and you're both familiar with Pure Illusion. I'd have no concerns for your loyalty to Flip Flap. You would have no one here to report anything back to."_

"_But we attacked your base."_

_He shrugged. "You did, but your base is destroyed now. Flip Flap can research Pure Illusion in peace."_

"_Why study Pure Illusion?" Was curious. Wasn't expecting an answer._

_Got one. Salt looked down at ground. Voice weary, sounding older than he was. "Because I lost someone very important to me in there… And I've just discovered she's still alive."_

"_Mimi?" I asked. Salt nodded. "Wish to meet her again?"_

_He looked up. "Yes."—_

* * *

"Hey, Asclepius kid, swap this part for me, would you?"

Blinked. Momentarily confused. _Where am I?_ Then remembered: at Flip Flap. Working with Hidaka on my new arm.

"Assistant! I said swap this part with me!" He yelled. Snapped to attention. Saw item he was talking about, and switched for other object. Arm looked half-complete. Inner skeleton mostly constructed, but still work to do. Wasn't sure how could assist, but would find a way.

_Sooner arm is complete, sooner can see Yayaka again..._

* * *

_Yayaka_

Time went kinda quickly after those first two days as I got used to things at Sayuri's house. Despite the fact she said she was taking time off work, she called Flip Flap a few times while we were away, maybe to give some kind of report as to how we were over here. I know one time she contacted them at least, she must have requested something from the main base, because I thought I saw Buu hovering around Sayuri's front door, carrying a brown box that was pretty heavily taped up. I'd guess some sort of secret project Hidaka was working on, going by his paranoia about everything else. I had no clue what was inside, and I never found out.

Actually, now I think about it that was the only other time the doorbell rang…

Until just now at least.

Had Buu had a delivery for Sayuri, I at least saw him flying outside the window, so I had a warning the doorbell was going to be set off (I covered my ears in time to block out some of the sound), but this time, the noise scared me so much, I ended up diving behind the chair at Sayuri's laptop desk to take cover. Damn thing kept freaking me out.

"Yayaka, it's for you!" Sayuri called, having answered. She entered the room, and looked around, confused, before seeing me hunched up on the ground. It took a little while for her to calm me down enough so I could go and see my visitors this time. If it was a fire alarm that went off, I probably wouldn't have even blinked, hell, I'd probably be getting my gloves on right now, getting ready to head off into whatever Pure Illusion I'd normally be going to next, but the friggin' doorbell? Let me tell you, not many people come knocking on the door of secret cultist bases. If I end up having my own place, first thing I'm doing is getting rid of any damn doorbells it has…

Feeling embarrassed, I stood up as quickly as I could, and dusted myself off, before darting away to see who the heck it was this time.

I still felt pretty shaky from earlier, but a smile broke out on my face when I saw a familiar pink-and-blue haired pair of people… And then I had to try and stifle a laugh. Seeing Papika drenched in what looked like every colour on the planet didn't faze me at all, but seeing nice, neat, and organised, _Cocona _looking like she'd fallen into a swamp of paint…

"What happened to you guys?" The two girls could probably hear the laughter I was trying to hold back in my voice.

"We went to the art room!" Papika, the living rainbow, announced proudly. I was about to ask another question, when thought I caught a flash of silver hair bob behind Cocona. "Who's that with-?"

Before I could finish my question, Cocona and Papika stepped aside, leaving Yuyu in plain view of me. It was difficult not to burst out laughing (a snort may have escaped) when I saw that her school uniform was absolutely coated in paint, as if she was wearing clothes made out of tropical fish, rather than just plain grey cloth. I have no idea what the hell happened to her, maybe she walked into someone else's artwork, or maybe Papika hugged her (the more likely of the two scenarios. Actually, that would explain there being so much paint on Cocona, Papika probably hugged the poor girl before the paint dried), either way, it took a deep breath for me to calm down and not to hoot with laughter.

Whether the fact she was covered in colour bothered Yuyu or not, I don't know. Her face didn't really betray anything. She was looking down though, not quite wanting to meet my eyes. It was then that I noticed she was clutching a canvas to her chest with her good arm.

"What've you got there?" I asked, interested. I mean, it was a painting, clearly, but much like almost everything else about the twins and Nyunyu showed an interest in, it made me curious. They never really had a chance to express themselves being at Asclepius, and now they have freedom to do so, and I'm learning a lot about these people, and it's fascinating to me.

Yuyu's red eyes flicked up to me once, quickly, before going back down. Her arm wavered a little as she slowly held the painting out to me. I could only see the back of it, so I reached a hand out to grab it and turn it over so I could get a better look and…

"Crapping hell…" My eyes widened when I gazed upon it. I've thought on occasion that Pure Illusion looked like famous artists had either designed parts of it, or gotten their inspiration from there, but looking at this…

My fingers hovered above the scene Yuyu had captured. A shining silver and gold forest, made of living metal… The exact land the metal leaf sitting on Sayuri's desk had come from. It looked like it could have been a photo with the sheer amount of detail on the canvas… Hell, honestly, I felt like if I watched it closely enough, I'd see everything moving. Every palm tree, and giant mushroom, all swaying together in shimmering waves of light…

I hesitated touching it before, because I didn't want to damage it, but temptation got the better of me. I could feel slightly rough bumps beneath my fingers, some of which belonged to the canvas itself, and others which belonged to the more pronounced brush strokes of Yuyu's, leaving trenches of colours and shadows for rough metallic bark, and smooth little blobs for leaves dotted along branches…

It was a perfect replica. If Asclepius' portal showed the places we'd be going to before it fired up, I seriously believe this would be the exact image it'd show for the land of metal leaves. It feels wrong of me to say I'd disappointed in the painting, but there's one thing that felt out of place to me: it wasn't cold to touch. It looked so damn _real _I thought that it might even have the same sort of coolness all the plant surfaces had in that world.

I know Yuyu had some talent for art, as when we were in the yuri-hell-school, Yuyu had managed to sew an exact replica of the outside of the school on our first day there when we did embroidery, despite only having seen the outside of it for maybe a minute or two at best, before we had to take shelter from the acid rain, but… this still blew me away.

…I almost wondered how long I spent staring at it. It could have only been seconds, but it felt like I've been standing here for a full day, taking in all the detail.

"You painted this, Yuyu?" I asked, my voice coming out a lot quieter than I would have expected. Yuyu's head dipped a fraction in a tiny nod I almost completely missed.

"This is… incredible." I know I'd just complimented her by saying that, but that single word didn't seem like enough to cover what I really thought about the painting, and I felt kinda dumb only being able to say that. I held it out to her to return it, only for her to raise her arm and push it back to me.

"…Yours."

I stared. It took me a little while to work out what the hell she'd just said, and when I did, my heart skipped a beat.

"You're… giving this to me?" The disbelief was clear in my voice.

I'm not entirely sure what happened next, but I think what I said came out harsher than I meant it to, as Yuyu glanced up at me quickly again, before letting go of the painting and running away.

I scrambled for the painting, and caught it just before it hit the ground.

"Hey, Yuyu!" "Yuyu!" Papika and Cocona called her name, Papika rushing off right away, and Cocona bowing and giving me a quick apology before chasing after the two of them.

_Did I upset her?_

I looked down at the painting in my hands, once again, stunned.

_Yuyu painted this for me…_

* * *

_Yuyu_

_Scared. Nervous. _Had new arm. Completely robotic. Obvious. _Did Yayaka see? _Would know Hidaka had part in arm creation. _Hates Hidaka… Could hate arm…_

_Could hate me…_

"Yuyu!" Heard Papika call my name. Footsteps, fast, approaching. Didn't stop. _Don't want Yayaka to hate me… But wanted to give her painting. Wanted to show I cared… _Wrote note too, but not sure Yayaka saw. _Scared. _

_Scared, scared, scared…_

Saw new arm as I ran. Looked down at it. White with red accents. Shiny and new… Barely functional. _My fault._ Wanted to paint for Yayaka as soon as able. Should have waited. Will need arm for Pure Illusion. Can fight with one hand at least. Have been trained…

_Arm new… But still defective… _Irritation. _But can be fixed. _Will_ be fixed…_

_((Defective… Forever defective…))_

"Yuyu, hold up!" Papika caught up to me. Grabbed my wrist. Tugged lightly. Stopped running. Turned to face her. Cocona-onee-chan caught up too.

Blue eyes. Brown eyes. Both concerned.

"Yuyu… Are you crying?" Cocona asked, softly. _Crying? _Put real hand to face. Felt thin trail of wetness.

"Yuyu…" Papika whispered name. Both girls came closer. Put their arms around me.

Felt connection with them both. Small spark. _Warm…_

Sad and scared… _Don't hate me, Yayaka._

_Please, don't hate…_

* * *

_Authors note: This one took a while to sort out, and even then, I feel it ended up pretty darn messy, sorry about that. As much as I wanted to give Yayaka a break from everything, I'm kinda cursing myself for having the break set mostly in the real world, as I realised that there wasn't too much I could type about without repeating myself. Annoyingly, I wanted Yayaka to have a talk with Sayuri about something, but every time I tried to write the scene (or copy/paste from scraps I'd already written), it just... didn't work. I'm not entirely sure it's a scene I can really add in the fic later either, it's just bad luck on my part that I had an IDEA! but just couldn't get it to work/fit in. Same for Yuyu, I kinda wanted to write a scene of her at the art room and her, Cocona, and Papika talking to Irodori, but... yeah, trouble writing. I feel I Could have written more things from Yuyu's POV, like more of armour creation, or added more details about that, but I was also kinda stuck for writing that too so I've made the descision to just try and move the fic along, because being stuck on this same part forever is starting to drive me nuts. I'm hoping to get the characters back into Pure Illusion, and get the story moving properly soon. I know it's been a pretty slow start, but at least now I can begin putting some more plans into place…_


	9. Chapter 8

_Yayaka_

I have no idea if Hidaka was pleased to see me again or not, I know I wasn't took keen to meet him again, especially when pretty much the instant I stepped back into Flip Flap with Sayuri, he grabbed my wrist and dragged me off to the Thomasson.

"Hey, what the hell?!" _I've literally just gotten back, can't I have a break in this building for five minutes?!_

"Salt's orders, we're to test your new Pure Illusion gear immediately." He said, not even bothering to look back at me. "It has to be you that goes first, we can't risk the amorphous kids in their current state."

I was about to yell at him, my brain making me doubt that I was being sent off on Salt's orders, but the last part of his speech had my attention. "What do you mean, 'you can't risk the amorphous kids in their current state' did you work out what's wrong with them?"

"I have a theory, but now's not the time for that, we need you to get going as soon as possible."

I wanted to ask why, but I doubted I'd get an answer, much like at Asclepius. _He's a scientist after all… _I guess being at Sayuri's for a while had done me some good though, I didn't immediately want to punch him in his stupid face the moment I saw him.

We got to the thin shelf that went over the pit, I wondered if Hidaka would even be able to cross it. He did, and pretty damn easily, but not in the way that everyone else had to cross over. He managed to summon some kind of… personal hover car, that looked a little like a UFO, and flew over it with no problem. He didn't offer to help me. Wouldn't have taken the offer if he did give me one. He might need me to test out this new gear he's been working on, but after that, how did I know he wouldn't throw me over the edge? _I'm not the lone precious key to Pure Illusion any more, I'm just… Yayaka._

I was pretty happy when we got there though, as I saw some familiar faces there waiting for me. Cocona, Papika, Toto, Nyunyu and Yuyu, all standing there waiting.

Well, everyone but Papika at least was standing there.

"Yayaka!" Pretty much the instant I stepped through the doorway, she tackled me in a hug. If I wasn't so startled, I probably would have found myself smiling a little. Don't get me wrong, it was nice to know that I was missed so much, even though Papika literally saw me the night before, but still, I tried to gently push her away, and she didn't budge.

You know, I think I was right when I said I'd need to pry Papika off when she hugged me. "Anyone got a crowbar?"

I was only joking, but Nyunyu grabbed one from nearby and held it out to me. Toto put his hand on her arm, getting her to lower the weapon. _At least someone kept that kid under control while I was gone…_

It was then that I noticed Toto's jaw was green. _No, that's not right. _He had some sort of green mask, sculpted to look like a skeletal jaw and nose that covered the lower half of his face, leaving his ears, eyes and hair exposed. _I guess that's a part of the new armour… _Oddly, he didn't have anything to protect his head where he was hit before, or an eyepiece over his left eye… Or not that I could see at least.

The rest of his gear was similar to how it was before, as his old set of armour covered his body and legs, and this new set was no different… Well, in coverage at least, it was a lot more padded than it used to be, to the point of looking a little over-stuffed. There were a few pale green lines across the middle, which looked like they were holding the whole thing together. At a guess, the puffiness of his outfit wasn't all padding, and that there were a number of gadgets, medical equipment or Hole devices in all of those pockets. Yuyu and Nyunyu's armour was almost identical to his, although the lines on Yuyu's armour were bright red, and Nyunyu's were orange. _Colour coded? _That seemed a bit odd to me, although I guess Toto and Yuyu were around the same height, so it might have been easy for the two to mistake their armour for the other's. Nyunyu's didn't need the colour at all, if that was the case, but she probably had the colour because she liked it.

Toto's armour though, was the only one that had the mask that covered his face. _Probably some kind of permanent breathing mask to make up for his difficulty breathing in that other world… _I could only hope it would somehow help him in the long run.

He wasn't the only one with a completely new or unique feature for his equipment. Nyunyu was wearing her metal ring around her middle, which made everyone else stand further away from her than they'd need to otherwise. _Why did Asclepius have to give her such a cumbersome weapon? _In a way, I was thankful they did, because the shield feature it had probably helped save Toto's life, but couldn't they have given her a smaller weapon?

As if Nyunyu could read minds, or she knew what I was thinking, I saw her slide the crowbar from earlier up along one of her forearms, and it clicked into place, alongside a number of thin tools. _She has smaller weapons. Plenty of them… _I wondered if it was such a good idea to give the person on the team who seemed most eager to attack things so many weapons, as it would only encourage her. _Well, I guess at least she doesn't appear to have any guns…_

Yuyu's armour more padded than Toto's and Nyunyu's, looking more like it was built for warmth rather than for defensive purposes, although being made for close combat, her armour probably provided decent protection too. She also had what looked like a battery pack peeking over her back. I wasn't entirely sure why, until I looked down.

"You have a new arm…"

Yuyu, not only looked away from me then, but angled her body slightly, as if to try and hide the metallic red and white limb. _How long has she had that? Did she wear that when she went to the art room? _ I was about to ask why she seemed to want to hide away, when Hidaka started talking again.

"And this is yours, Yayaka." He said, holding out a folded set of armour that looked almost identical to the other sets, apart from the colour on mine was bright yellow. Papika let go of me at that point, and I swiped the armour from Hidaka, glaring at him as I did so. There wasn't really anywhere in the room I could change my clothes, so I left the room until I found a cupboard and got changed in there. The new gear was… quite comfortable actually. I put my hands over my rocket belt, which Hidaka had included as a part of my gear, and rummaged through the items in my pockets to make sure they were all there. _Clone of jacket… Dead amorphous… Breathing mask…_ That one was a little odd, as it still felt like the breathing mask I'd had before, but it seemed… different somehow. _Upgraded? _Must've been. _Maybe it'll last longer than ten minutes…_

I didn't need to check the pockets for my transformation item. The silver chain from the copy of the necklace was wrapped on the outside of the belt, so I could see that just fine. Hidaka hadn't seemed to take away any of my things. _Good._ I got to one of the pockets that I knew was empty and was about to stuff my school uniform in it when I found that I couldn't.

"What the…" I threw my uniform to the floor, and rummaged around in the pocket. _It's full… But what with? _I reached in and my fingers touched many small plastic and metal capsules. _Hole devices? _I guess after last time we almost got trapped, it made sense to have some on me. Not that I knew how to work them, but still.

I grabbed my uniform from the floor, and carried it with me back to the Thomasson. No one in the room had moved, apart from Papika, who was sitting inside the top compartment of the Thomasson. I was a little surprised at the lack of Cocona with her, and turned to Hidaka. "Am I going with Papika this time?"

"I can confirm, that's the case."

I frowned, "But she doesn't even have any armour to test out"

"Yes, but you can't go to Pure Illusion alone, and Papika's the only one available for you to go with. As soon as you two return and report the effectiveness of the armour, like if the temperature regulator, new breathing masks, if you can move well enough in them, and also whether it allows for your ability to transform, I'll be sending Cocona and the amorphous children in together afterwards, to confirm their armour works too. They have to go with Cocona for safety's sake."

I was about to ask what he meant, when Yuyu explained, "Toto and I made from amorphous. Mimi's amorphous." She didn't look at me as she spoke, and still looked a bit like she wanted nothing more than to hide away from me. "Mimi took amorphous' power away in Pure Illusion. Effect must apply to all amorphous, regardless of location. Only takes effect in Pure Illusion, but while there… _defective._" She seemed to spit that final word out.

I stood there for a moment, taking this information in. When Yamimi took the amorphous' power and our ability to transform with it away when me, Papika and Cocona were fighting her before, I wondered then what would happen to the twins if they happened to be in Pure Illusion… and it turned out my worst fears would have been right. _If they were with me back then… they wouldn't be standing here now…_

"But what about Nyunyu?" I asked. "She seemed fine when she was with me and Toto."

"Nyunyu made from different amorphous" she said. Her flesh-and-blood arm picked at the necklace she was wearing. _My old dragon-egg necklace… _"Cocona's amorphous."

"_Cocona's amorphous?!" _I looked at Cocona, whose eyes went wide.

"_Mine?!"_ She sounded just as surprised as I was. _So, wait, would that mean Nyunyu was Cocona's kid in a way? _...Actually, I wasn't sure I Wanted to know the answer to that. _Nyunyu's Cocona's, Toto's and Yuyu's little sister. Not her kid. _

Yuyu nodded, turning to the brown-eyed girl. "Mimi's biological child. Power over Pure Illusion. Natural you can create amorphous too… Amorphous theorised to be Cocona's at least. Regardless of origin, influenced by Cocona. Nyunyu will be safe as long as Cocona wishes it."

"I would never hurt her!" Cocona said, shocked that such a suggestion would be made. The blue-haired girl knelt down to Nyunyu and hugged her gently, as if to calm and reassure Nyunyu of the fact, although whether Nyunyu was upset by any implications Yuyu mentioned or needed said reassurance from Cocona was impossible to tell. She then stepped away, and looked in the amorphous kid's and Papika's direction. "I might not know some of you very well, but you're my family and I love all of you!"

I couldn't see Toto's mouth, as it was hidden behind his half-mask, but his cheeks rose slightly, as if he was smiling underneath it. Yuyu didn't appear to show any emotion on her face, although she must have felt something, because her hand went to her chest slowly, and she looked down, as if hesitant to accept the words, and Nyunyu seemed neutral to the statement. When it came to Papika's reaction though, her smile was so bright, it looked like it could light up the entire planet if the sun ever went out.

My reaction was… well, like Yuyu, I stood there looking down. However, unlike Yuyu, my hands were curled into tight fists at my side, and I could feel my nails digging into my palms. Cocona wasn't looking at me when she said it, and she never turned her head in my direction. _She wouldn't leave me out if she said something like that… I must've been included in that too… right? _

I wanted to believe that thought. I really did.

_**((But why would she care? After all of your lies… Why would anyone love **_**you**_**?))**_

_She bought me food because she thought I was hungry. She chose cream bread on purpose, and hugged me when I saw her after everything in Pure Illusion… _My hands began to shake. _Cocona forgave me!_

_**((She said she was glad you were safe. Cocona never said anything about forgiveness.))**_

I grit my teeth, hard, trying not to yell out loud. I turned my head so I was facing Hidaka, who was speaking while I was having all of those thoughts, and tried my hardest to focus on that.

"…she was wearing the necklace, Yuyu said she was able to move and react, however, when she discarded it, Yuyu began to experience negative effects from being in Pure Illusion. Yet, when Cocona came over to her, Yuyu claims those negative effects lessened, if not reversed fully…"

I interrupted Hidaka, figuring trying to take part in conversation again would help try and take my mind off what I was thinking. "So, you're sending me and Papika into Pure Illusion to test my armour, but just in case my armour is fine, and something goes wrong with Yuyu's or Toto's, or something happens to Nyunyu, then they'll have Cocona?" I know that was pretty much established before, but I wanted confirmation. That and to try and ignore intrusive thoughts.

"Exactly!"

It made sense to me, but my bitter brain couldn't help thinking that this was some sort of plan to get rid of me. _Hidaka wouldn't care if I came back from Pure Illusion… _And my paranoia from earlier wasn't helping. _Hell, would any of them care? __**((Switch with me… I can make them care…))**_

I shook my head, to try and clear it. Didn't work. I wasn't sure I could keep my suspicions or my anger out of my voice, so I when I spoke out loud, I spoke about something else that made me mad, because I didn't want to direct my current feelings to people who were probably innocently unaware of any hurt I felt. "If Mimi took the power away from the amorphous…" _does she know she could have killed Toto and Yuyu if they were in Pure Illusion? Does she care? _It was a little hard to tell, but I think my nails were drawing blood from my hands now. _Did she _ever _care about Cocona, or anyone besides herself?! _"Would she be able to give the power back, or heal the twins?"

"We can ask her!" Papika said, cheerily. "We can try and visit her in Pure Illusion!"

"Is that even possible from Flip Flap, if you guys don't use coordinates?"

"I have no idea, but if we both think and feel the same, we might be able to find her," Papika said.

"So—"

"You're wasting time!" Hidaka yelled, throwing his arms in the air in frustration. "You can find the answer to your question if you two just hurry up and go already. We need to test this equipment!"

My anger was starting to boil over. My hands felt hot, and I could feel tenseness in my shoulders. _**((Switch with me… You can have revenge…)) **_I growled and spun around, clambering into the lower compartment of the Thomasson. Not because Hidaka wanted me to, but because if I stayed out there any longer, he'd definitely get a punch in the face.

The door was shut, and I suddenly had a thought. _If Yuyu's amorphous-made body is failing because of Mimi's power, and I used her so I could transform… Did I accidentally shorten her lifespan? If she struggles to stay alive in Pure Illusion as it is… What if I'd killed her? _Even though it was a while ago now, I felt bad for using her power for my own gain. _And Toto and Nyunyu too… I used Nyunyu to help Toto recover… He's okay for now, but did I shorten Nyunyu's lifespan? She's only made from a little amorphous, would she even live as long as a normal person? What about the Twins?_

There was a little twitch in the bond between me and Papika, breaking my train of thought. "Are you okay, Yayaka?" She asked. _Friggin' bond… _I cursed the fact I had a connection to her, as I didn't really want to talk right now. It was a while before I replied.

"I'm fine…" I grumbled. _Please, take the hint…_ She reached her hand down from the upper level, ready for me to grasp. Taking her hand in mine, I was surprised to find it warm to touch. It was probably silly for me expect otherwise, I mean, she's not amorphous-made, like most of the people I was used to having physical contact with, but it was… comforting. I know Toto, Yuyu, and Nyunyu were alive, but they never really felt it because they never seemed to give off any body heat. Papika though… I mean, she was a bundle of energy anyway, but holding her hand now…

"You're not alone, Yayaka," Papika said, softly. "Please, try not to feel that way. We all care about you—"

"I said I'm fine!" I snapped, raising my voice, hoping she'd pick up on the fact I didn't want to talk about it, and immediately felt bad. _She's only telling me what I wanted to hear from Cocona… I shouldn't get mad at her. _I couldn't help wishing it was Cocona who'd said that to me in the first place, but still, the fact Papika seemed to know how I was feeling, and the fact she wanted to reassure me and tell me I was cared about… Her saying that, the hug she gave me on my return helped me believe that was the case. Or that Papika cared about me, if no one else in the world. "I'm sorry," I said, regretting acting like a jerk to her.

"It's okay. I'm sorry if I hurt you by talking."

"You didn't hurt me by talking…" I said. "My brain just… Makes things bad."

Papika gave my hand a gentle squeeze, an action I felt all the way in my heart. "I'm here, Yayaka. If you ever need to talk, or you need someone around, you can come to me." I couldn't see her, but I could hear the comfort and support she was trying to give me.

"Thank you, Papika," I said, sincerely, squeezing her hand in return. "It means a lot."

Like I said, I couldn't see her face, but a flare in the bond between us told me, she was trying to give me a warm smile.

We sat in companionable silence for a little while after talking, giving me some time to take some deep breaths and calm myself. Much to my annoyance, though, I knew we couldn't sit like this forever. _Hidaka wants you two to get moving… _"So… You were saying you think we can see Mimi in Pure Illusion?"

"Yep!" Papika sounded pretty eager to get going. I couldn't hear her moving, but it wouldn't have surprised me if in her compartment, she was wiggling on the spot with excitement. "If we both think and feel the same—"

"I know how it works, you…" _pink-haired idiot. _I held back from saying that out loud. Instead, I tried to turn it into a question, "…got anyideas?"

"Last time I went to see her, she had lots of sweets!" Papika said, "Like cakes, candy…" I was about to scold her for getting distracted until she finished that sentence, "and cream bread, too!"

"Cream bread?"

"Uh huh!" I could hear the smile in her voice. "I know you like cream bread, so maybe if we both think about Mimi's cream bread, we can find her in Pure Illusion!"

I wanted to say that I had no idea what Mimi's cream bread tasted or looked like, so I couldn't really think about it, but I could feel the atmosphere in the Thomasson had already changed. _She's actually trying this… _

Well, I guess I didn't have anything to lose by thinking about cream bread. _If we meet Mimi, I can ask her and see if she can fix the amorphous kids somehow… And if not, then maybe I can try some home-made cream bread of hers'. _

There was a moment of calm, before I felt myself being tugged into a Hole…

* * *

You can get to Pure Illusion a few different ways, but all of then required some form of synchronisation with another person. Whether it was stepping through a portal at the same time, feeling the same way about something, or just having some kind of connection with them.

It just seemed ridiculous to me, that you could get there by thinking about my favourite food. So naturally, the instant me and Papika landed, I couldn't help it.

"We actually made it," I laughed, in disbelief. Normally I would have taken in the details about our new surroundings right away, but I was too focused on the fact that such an insignificant thing actually got us there, that I wasn't paying attention.

Papika didn't seem to take too much notice of me. The pink-haired girl had wandered away a few steps and began to sniff the air. She did that a few times, sniffing in one spot, before changing direction. Eventually she suddenly perked up.

"I can smell Mimi!" She exclaimed.

The fact that her idea actually _worked, _only seemed to make me laugh harder.

"Yayaka, this isn't funny!" She said, annoyed. I couldn't help myself, I was in such a weird damn mood earlier, having that stupid voice bothering me again, and now here I was, in another dimension, thanks to the power of food.

It's times like this when it hits me, just how friggin' weird my life can be.

Eventually, I calmed down, and saw Papika glaring at me, her hands on her hips, and her cheeks puffed out with annoyance. "Are you done?"

"Yeah… sorry," I said.

Papika seemed pretty quick to forgive me though, and began to lead the way. "Come on! It's this way!"

* * *

I had no idea how Papika could catch the scent of Mimi in this place. All I could smell was earth and plant-life.

We'd landed in a place that looked like a rainforest, or a tropical jungle. Crowds of trees were splashed all over the area, with curtains of vines dripping between them. Walking through it felt like we were trying to push our way through layers and layers of leafy circus tents. The ground was soft, a little marshy, and squelched every time we took a step. The air was heavy and humid, which made it a bit difficult to breathe.

Just as I had that thought though, something in my armour kicked in. I heard a beep and looked down to see a little screen on one of the shoulders, which I hadn't noticed before, open up to reveal a breathing mask. I didn't take it, I didn't think I'd need it yet, but it was good to know there was something there, in case I couldn't reach the one in my weapon belt in time. I wondered for a second why I had two, but I glanced back at Papika, and that answered my question. _Never hurts to have a spare, especially if someone else needs it._

All of a sudden, the land changed. I can't really describe what happened exactly, we were walking and everything looked normal, then next thing I knew, Papika looked like she was a sketch on paper, rather than a living person. Taking a look down and holding my hands out, I saw that she wasn't the only one affected. I turned my hands over and over, watching as grey pencil scratches shifted and morphed with each movement I made. It looked a bit like something from a music video Cocona showed me once. The trees around us had changed too, form being thick brown trunks and draping vines to pretty much outlines of the objects. It was really hard to get a sense of distance.

Papika seemed to be struggling too. The change in the world didn't throw her off in the slightest, she kept moving, and seemed to still be following her nose, but she raised her arms, to try and get an idea of where everything was exactly.

I heard a fluttering in my ear, and turned around, hand to my rocket belt (I am _so _happy I have this thing again) ready to fire off at whatever had made the noise, only to see…

"What the hell _is _that?" I asked out. Papika had finally stopped moving and spun around to see what I was questioning the existence of.

It's been a while since I've seen a non-humanoid or plant-like life-form in Pure Illusion, I honestly sorta forgot that could even happen, so in a way, seeing… What I could only say was what looked like a hexagon outline, fluffy, as if it had fur or feathers, and hollow in the middle like a ring, with wings at two of the six points. I ended up watching it fly around for quite a while, wondering how something like that was even alive. If it had any natural colour to it, I couldn't tell right now, as it was a living sketch like everything else in this part of the forest. _If the colour doesn't come back, we're gonna have a lot of trouble finding Mimi…_

"There!" Papika called, pointing. She didn't seem as mesmerised by the hexagon-bird as I was, and appeared to have found a lead as to where in this world Mimi was.

If it wasn't for the fact everything seemed so oddly distorted, looking like a page out of a sketchbook, we probably would have noticed the wooden house earlier. It made sense to me that Mimi would be in a building, rather than just wandering around in a forest somewhere. I didn't think Mimi would be in a hostile world if she could help it, and even then, she might have had powers in Pure Illusion that practically made her a god, but I wouldn't wanna be out in the open, just in case something happened to me. Well, even then, we've both spent a long time in Pure Illusion, (if you take the time difference into account, probably years in my case, and maybe decades, or even centuries, for Mimi), and we'd both probably know as much as anyone: you don't want to live out here in the wild…

_But Papika did though… _She'd begun walking to the lone building in the forest, and I followed her (both of us with our arms still out, because although we had a proper destination now, it didn't make working out how far away anything was any easier). I found my mind wandering as my body went on auto-pilot, as I walked behind her. S_ayuri told me that she grew up in Pure Illusion, and was pretty wild, when they found her… or did she find them? _I couldn't remember if Sayuri had mentioned what happened there exactly. _Either way, that kid's grown up all alone in here, until she found her way out and joined Flip Flap… What was that like for her?_

The door to the building was facing the side we approached from, so at least we didn't have to circle around to get inside. Even though the amorphous weren't in Pure Illusion anymore, and even then, they were powered down, I couldn't help but feel suspicious as we approached.

"Hold it, Papika!" I barked, as the pink-haired girl was about to reach for the door handle. I rushed over and grabbed her hand, tugging her away from the building. "How do we know Mimi didn't leave some sort of trap on this place?

"Mimi wouldn't do that," Papika answered, simply.

"The Mimi you know might not, but after Asclepius trying to take her amorphous and use its power to take over the world, don't you think she might be a bit more careful?" Saying that out loud made me wonder actually, if any of the defensive traps in any of the world's we'd encountered have been created by Mimi on purpose, or if they all just sort of… 'Happened'. It was hard to say.

"But Mimi knows me," she said, smiling. "She won't hurt me."

"…Papika, she tried to kill you for becoming Cocona's..." _girlfriend. _My voice trailed off. That word… wasn't really one I wanted to use out loud, in reference to those two. It was a fact, but not one I really wanted to think about. _**(("She can be yours… Switch with me…"))**_

If Papika picked up on my hesitance to speak, she didn't show it. Instead, she'd continued talking while my thoughts had gotten a little carried away. "That was the bad Mimi, Yayaka. The good one would never do that." She turned around, so she was facing the door again. "And I can prove it to you!"

Her hand touched the door, and it creaked open…

* * *

The first thing that hit me when I stepped into the building was the smell. Sweet, but sickening, like someone had a thousand flowers, and shoved all of them into my face at once, so I could sniff them… And there wasn't a single plant in sight, not even any white clovers. None of the windows were open either, so it was definitely all coming from inside.

Beyond the smell, the rest of the building seemed pretty normal (for Pure Illusion at least). It was a large hut, the inside of which had little in the ways of decoration. There were windows in the room, which showed the living sketch rainforest outside… Yet if I had a look through the doorway to a window not far away, I saw, not the realistic rainforest, or the sketch, but… Geometric shapes?

I wanted to get a closer look, out of curiosity, but I was frozen in place by the stench. My mind began going into overdrive. _It's stunned me. Poison. I'm breathing poison! Where's Papika? We have to get out of here! _It felt like my nose went blind. The air was thick with… I don't even know, it's like it was humid. Warm and heavy. Hard to breathe.

I turned around in a panic and tried to open the door again so we could get back outside.

Locked.

That's when I started to hyperventilate.

_This is a trap! We can't get out! _

"Papika! The door's stuck!" I called for her, hoping she'd come and help me, but there was no response from her. Or no direct one at least.

"Mimi, why did you have to make it so smelly here…?" I could just about catch what she was saying beyond the blood rushing in my ears, as I still tried to wrestle the door open. _HOW THE CRAP ARE YOU RELAXED ABOUT THIS?!_

The handle clicked under my fingers, but no matter what I did, the door was jammed and didn't budge. I stepped away and began patting the pockets of my Flip Flap armour, wondering if there were any gadgets tucked away in there—

_The breathing mask!_

Cursing myself for not thinking of it earlier, especially when it friggin' beeped to remind me it was a thing earlier, I grabbed it and was about to pull it over my face when the smell began to fade, fast. Although the air felt cooler, and drier, and it quickly became easier to breathe, I was still trying not to explode from panic.

"Yayaka, it's okay." Papika had rushed over to my side quickly, and put a hand on my shoulder. I looked at her, into her concerned blue eyes, as she gently smiled and gave me a simple instruction. "Deep breaths. Take it slow."

She took one breath herself and exhaled slowly as an example. "Just copy me," she said. It took a while before I could manage to get myself to copy her, but eventually I did, and I settled back down, and tucked the breathing mask back into its shoulder compartment.

"Are you okay now?" she asked.

Now I could think again, what probably should have been my first thought came back to me, and I blurted it out. "You weren't affected by the smell."

"I've known Mimi for a long time. I'm used to it," Papika said. Then she stepped aside and pointed to an open teapot sitting on top of a chest of drawers. "If you take the lid off the teapot, it'll take the smell away. She made it strong so I could always find her, no matter how far away she is, but sometimes she makes it _too_ strong." Her arm trailed down to the open bottom drawer, "and if you open that up, it'll light up the world outside…"

I thought about how the change in scenery hadn't thrown her off in the slightest. "…You've been to this world before."

Oddly, Papika shook her head. "No. I've been to this building before, but not this Pure Illusion." I was about to ask how that was possible, when Papika continued. "Mimi makes the same place whatever world she ends up in, when she finds it too overwhelming. When she first went to Pure Illusion on her own, she kept making the house because she found the big open spaces too much for her. When Asclepius had her, she only knew the one room the kept her in... That room was her whole life. They never let her out to play, or let her have a friend… Sometimes Asclepius brought a person to her in the hopes she would go to Pure Illusion with them, so Asclepius could work out how to go there themselves, but they didn't get any results for a long time…

"Not until me…"

Again, I wanted to ask her what she meant, and how she knew all of this, when I felt a twitch in the bond we had… In the connection between us that seemed so, so strong, despite how little we knew about each other, and how she seemed to understand me so well. I thought it was because we both loved Cocona more than anything in the world…

But that wasn't the case at all… Or not entirely, at least.

Papika faced me again, this time, with a sad smile on her face, as she said the words that explained so much:

"You're not the only one who worked for Asclepius, Yayaka."

* * *

I could only stand there in silence, trying to get what she said to register fully in my brain. _It makes so much sense… _But for some reason, I found it hard to believe. _But… How could she have worked for Asclepius? Aren't we the same age? Could I have lived there all that time, and just never noticed her? _No… that would have been impossible. Asclepius would have sent her out with me and all the other kids. Her pink hair would have stuck out like a rotting sore thumb amongst all the grey and silver in the building. _Unless she was locked up in the music room all that time? I didn't know that room existed until I went to Pure Illusion… _But that idea seemed crazy to me. It was possible but… _Wait, Sayuri said she grew up in Pure Illusion, but Asclepius brought her to Mimi… Those two things don't match up..._

"I don't get this…" I mumbled, putting a hand to my forehead, to try and ease the headache I could feel building. Papika twitched, as if she was about to move closer to me, to try and help, when a voice broke the silence.

"Papika? Is that you?"

I knew the voice, and it took me a second to work out who it belonged to, as I've only heard it a few times before. I turned around, and standing there, in a white dress, with long blue hair, and red eyes the colour of rose petals was-

"Mimiiiii!" Papika cried happily, barrelling into her in a hug. Mimi didn't seem too fazed or bewildered by it. She just chuckled, and wrapped her arms lightly around Papika in return.

"Hello, Papika" Mimi said, with a warm smile, that reminded me so much of her daughter. Looking at these two friends in front of me, I felt a pang of jealousy. Mimi wasn't Cocona, but the family resemblance was undeniable, and looking at these two, all I could think about was everything I wanted, and I could never have. _**((Switch with me….))**_

After a little while, Papika pulled away from Mimi and hopped over to my side. "This is Yayaka," She said, introducing me. "She's Cocona's best friend, and kept her company until I could find her again."

'_Until I could find her again?' What does she mean by that?_

Mimi turned to look at me, her smile turning a little curious and pondering as she looked at me, as if she was trying to work out where she'd seen me before.

"Yayaka… Nice to meet you," Mimi said, "Thank you for looking after my daughter while I've been away."

Her saying that made me feel a little mad, and I started to regret coming here_. 'While you were away?' Cocona thought you were friggin' dead! How could you abandon her like that?!_ I forced myself to take a deep breath and calm down. _This isn't Yamimi anymore. This is regular Mimi. The good, nice Mimi._ _Papika took me here so—_

"Yayaka wanted to try your cream bread!" Papika exclaimed, almost bouncing with excitement. The mention of cream bread helped me settle down a bit… well, helped my mind settle at least. My stomach however… normally I'd say it growled at that point, but going by the sheer volume of it, it sounded more like a roar. My hands went to my stomach, as if to quieten it, and I'm pretty sure my face went a little red, embarrassed such a thing had happened.

"Food would be good, please," I managed to mumble. Mimi blinked at me in surprise, before she chuckled, and lead the both of us to the kitchen of this place.

I sat down at the table, a few seats away from Papika, feeling out of place, and trying to work out what she meant by her earlier comment of 'finding Cocona again'. _It sounds like they've met before... but Cocona never said anything to me about her... _I tried to play back all the conversations we've had in my head, trying to pinpoint something that would give me a hint that they'd known each other before... Nothing stuck out to me, or not that I could think of...

But there was something in one of my memories that was bugging me, now I thought about it. _When I met Cocona at the hospital, and we sat amongst the flowerbeds... It looked like some of the pink ones were bobbing and dancing, and something about them didn't seem right... _I wanted to get a closer look, but Cocona asked me if I wanted to play a game with her... _Could Papika have been there that day?_

A light clang of a ceramic plate hitting the polished table we were sitting at, was enough to jolt me back to the world inside the old plank house. In the time I was distracted, Mimi had put out various cakes and treats out on the table in front of us, making sure to put a large plate of cream bread in front of me, before taking a seat next to Papika.

The instant I saw that plate, my hands flew to it, like they were being magnetised to the food.

I've eaten cream bread before, an awful lot of it, but I swear, none of it has been as delicious as the stuff in front of me right now. While Papika was slowly making her way through a slice of strawberry cake, and Mimi eating a scone, the two of them sharing a pleasant conversation, I was powering through the mini mountain of food in front of me. Oh man this was _good!_

After what felt like maybe a couple of minutes, my stomach felt full to bursting, and I kinda regretted eating so much as I felt a little uncomfortable.

When I was done, Mimi added me to hers' and Papika's conversation.

"So, Yayaka. You've been Cocona's friend for a long time. How did she grow up?" She looked a little… worried as she asked me. Her fingers were wrapped tightly around a cup of tea, to the point her knuckles were white. A part of me wondered if she was so desperate to hear the answer that she'd hold onto the cup, even if it was scalding to the point of burning her hands, until I answered her question.

"She…" I hesitated on that word for a while_. Mimi knows about Asclepius and Pure Illusion. I can tell her everything…_ "Was raised by…" Again, I mentally stumbled as I spoke, trying to find the words, "an android, posing as her grandmother. The android was a part of Asclepius and kept an eye on her until Asclepius could find someone who could get to Pure Illusion_…" So they could go there with her, and gather amorphous…_ _So Asclepius could control, manipulate, and shape the world into whatever the hell they wanted, regardless of consequences… So they could have your power… _"I met Cocona at a hospital, when we were around… nine years old, maybe?" I couldn't quite remember, it felt to me like I'd known her all my life. "She was shy, but she was kind_." She was the first person to genuinely care about me, and I wanted to save her from the tests and examinations at the hospital, assuming they'd be like what Asclepius had put me through…_ I felt a little bloom of warmth in my chest though, as I began to talk about Cocona. A tiny smile formed on my face and began to grow as I thought about her.

"We got talking in the hospital gardens, and she told me all the fairy tales she knew, and about all the stories she'd read... She's got a way with words. She'd talk, and you could feel yourself there, riding on the backs of dragons, with the wind in your hair, and the dampness of the clouds, as if you could reach out and touch them. You could picture all of her stories perfectly, down to every last detail, from the wizard towers, made of flint, books scattered on every surface, to the alien space ships that'd float through the sky. Worlds, and words, you could lose yourself in…"

I realised that I was staring blankly into space, probably with a goofy grin on my face as I spoke about her. Suddenly embarrassed, I coughed, and changed the subject from Cocona's stories to other things we did growing up. "She was always good at school, eager to study and learn things. She had a few friends in the classes at school, but found it a little hard to talk to them in the first place, being shy and all. Sports were never really her thing, but that didn't stop her from trying. Playing wasn't her strong point, but tactics? She could do that, easy. We've won quite a few sports tournaments with her input... And then Papika came along and…"

I trailed off, and looked away. _Took her away from me…_

Thankfully before my brain could run with that bad thought, Papika piped up and added her own observations of Cocona. "She's super smart, Mimi! She can do anything she wants to when she leaves school! She's so good at everything, and she has so much to choose from, but she told me what she wants to do most! She's gonna be an author and write her own books!"

Mimi watched the two of us eagerly as we spoke, and when Papika had told us of Cocona's choice of job, she began to smile as much as I had earlier, when I was talking about her.

"That's great!" She said, sincerely "it sounds like she'd be good at that!" Then her voice weakened, and a tear rolled down her face. "She's grown up, so much… and I've missed all of it…"

Papika looked at Mimi with gentle worry in her eyes, and got up from the table, to give Mimi a comforting hug… But something about the action felt very… 'close', for want of words. I mean, from what little I knew, it was clear to me that Papika and Mimi were close, but it seemed like… there was a little more to it than that.

I sat there, feeling like an intruder. _I'm not sure I should be here…_

But I had to know. I probably shouldn't have interrupted the moment, but "I'm getting confused…" My headache from earlier had only grown, "Papika, Sayuri told me you grew up in Pure Illusion, and that you were alone until you came across Flip Flap, but _you_ say you've worked for Asclepius, and being the same age as me, if that was the case, I'm pretty sure I would have seen you in all the time I've worked for them… but also, you and Mimi seem to have a history, or seem to know each other pretty damn well, but how is all of that possible when you're the same age as me? Mimi looking young I can understand, she's basically Queen of Pure Illusion and can do whatever she wants…" _The more I think about this, the more my head's gonna hurt trying to figure everything out. _"But all of that can't have happened to one person in all that time… What's the deal with you two?"

It was a little while before red and blue eyes met mine. Papika looked down, a little unsure. "Didn't Asclepius tell you?"

I scoffed. "Asclepius never told me anything."

There was a pause before Papika spoke again. "It's a long story…"

"We're in Pure Illusion, Papika. We have time. Plenty of it."

"Its okay, Papikana," Mimi said, giving the pink-haired girl a gentle smile. _Papikana?_

There was still a moment of hesitance before Papika finally spoke, giving me a quick rundown of her past. When she was done with her story, all I could do was stare, trying to take all of it in.

"So… Papika was part of Asclepius when they did the experiments on Mimi, and at some time during all of this, Mimi fell in love with Salt and had Cocona, and when Asclepius tried to take baby Cocona away, Mimi unleashed her power and tried to keep Cocona safe, by taking her into Pure Illusion, Papika fol- Papika_na_ followed, ended up separated after being given baby Cocona… and then Papikana was reborn as Papika, and Cocona had found her way into Pure Illusion to visit Papika from time to time..."

I thought getting an answer would have cleared things up…

Well, it did in places, but in others, it made things more confusing. _What happened to baby Cocona? How did Asclepius get a hold of Cocona as she was growing up? Can Mimi really revive people, or give them life again? _

But amongst all those questions, one thought got stuck in my mind: _Mimi switched to save Cocona. To protect her, and keep her safe... _It was an act of love.

_But if I switched, it'd be because I wanted her to fall in love with me instead of Papika._

It would be an act of jealousy and selfishness... and I hated myself for it.

_I need a break... _"I'm gonna head outside," I said.

* * *

I stepped outside, into the sketchy rainforest, shut the door behind me, and looked up into the shifting pencil-lines of the tree canopy above. With all the subtle movement of the leaves swaying, it looked a bit like I was seeing television static on an old CRT TV.

I was about to wonder out loud why I'd ever come here in the first place, but I actually _did _have a reason, beyond stuffing my face with sweets, and learning about Papika's past: Hidaka wanted me to test this new Flip Flap armour. Despite thinking of the scientist again, I smirked. Maybe it was a good thing he'd given this to me, as it'd give me something else to focus on. Frag knows I needed that right now. And then I got annoyed again. I'd love to have started running, so I could see how this compared to the old Asclepius stuff when it came to movement, but it'd be impossible for me to do that here without m visor, as I'd have little/no sense of distance in the sketch-forest.

"Damn it, Hidaka, couldn't you at least give me that back?"

_Okay, fine. I can't really test running around in this stuff, but Hidaka said to check the temperature regulation and breathing mask… _Well, temperature-wise I felt fine. I didn't really know how to test it otherwise, it didn't look like Mimi's house had a fridge in it, so I couldn't just open it up and stand there and see if my suit adjusted. The breathing mask though I could try though… _And now I think about it, I _can_ see how running around in this suit works, as long as I can find my way back to the building I'll be fine._

For a second, I wasn't sure how I'd be able to find my way back, but my hand touched at the grappling wire on my weapon belt. _I can leave a trail, or I can hook it to a tree near the building, and find my way back using that._

Decision made, I spent a while testing out the new armour, when I got back to the part of the rainforest that didn't look like an artist's sketch, so I could actually get a sense of distance.

Running in this new armour was about the same as it was in my old Asclepius gear, but you could argue this stuff was better, because although some of the plants scratched at my legs, I couldn't feel it pierce the clothing and make contact with my skin, whereas with Asclepius' gear I had bare legs. Now I think about it, it was probably lucky that we'd never run into any poisonous plants in Pure Illusion before. _I don't know if the twins thought of this on purpose or not, but it was a good choice to make. _The humidity became a little much the more I ran around, so I figured I'd grab the breathing mask too and check it out. I probably should have done this in the first place, I mean, considering this piece of equipment was pretty much mandatory for Toto's survival in Pure Illusion, I should make sure the damn thing would actually work for him, or that mine is at least functional. I opened up the shoulder compartment, pulled the new mask out, and put it over my face.

The air that came from the mask was cool and refreshing, a nice contrast to the heavy, warm humid air of the forest around me. _It definitely works. Toto should be fine. _

And that was when something suddenly popped up from the bottom of the mask. A dark glass screen rose, covering my eyes, and I felt a metal band wind itself around the top of my head. _Wait a second… This is… _I reached up a hand to a familiar position, and pressed the button I knew would be there…

Unfortunately, my speed booster was completely busted, or at least Hidaka couldn't get it to work again (I ran a couple of steps and only went forward as far as I normally would have, rather than rocketing a few yards away)… But he _did _give me my visor back after all, just as an attachment to my breathing mask. I stopped running and messed around with commands, watching all the information flash across the visor. Oh, man, I've missed this… It displayed the coordinates for the world, a few other lines of information otherwise…

_I wonder…_

"Yayaka calling Flip Flap, can you read me?"

* * *

_Yuyu_

"Hey, Yayaka, calling Flip Flap! Toto, Yuyu, Nyunyu, Cocona, you guys there?"

Startled. Yayaka's voice came from new arm. Hidaka must have transferred communications from old arm to new one. Was about to answer. Hidaka spoke before anyone else could.

"YAYAKA! WHAT TOOK YOU SO LONG? GIVE ME THE RESULTS!" He was loud, but could understand. Information required.

"All good so far. Not tested the weapons, but everything else works just fine. Yayaka out" Message was quick. Uncertain why, but would guess Yayaka's dislike of Hidaka. Tried to make inter-dimensional communication possible. Was possible. Relieved. _If another situation where team gets stuck, can contact Flip Flap. Good._

* * *

_Yayaka_

After a while, running around and testing equipment I decided to head back to Mimi's house. I'd retracted my grappling wire the instant I got the wire-frame mode working on my visor again. I only used it a couple of times before, didn't even know it existed until I activated it by accident in a world that stunk of oil pastels. There were large spider-web like structures there which were hard to walk on, and the world was so colourful, it was disorienting to get a sense of where anything was and where you were putting your feet. Thankfully, the wire-frame mode sorted that out, by showing objects… well, like green wire frames.

I stepped back into the part of the world that was an animated pencil sketch, and I was able to navigate easily, without needing to walk around with my arms out. My visor showed the exact distances of all of the objects around, all of the heights of everything… Even when one of the weird hexagonal birds returned, it showed that as some weird flying ring as it weaved between the trees. I could walk through this area with no problems now.

I heard a sharp BEEP! Coming from my breathing mask then. _So they've still got a time limit to them… _I shouldn't be surprised by that, they tend to be for emergencies only... _but Toto's would have to be able to hold a lot more air than just ten minute's worth… _I started to get a little worried. _What if he only has enough air for one day, but for some reason, he ended up in a world for longer than that? _ I'd hope that Toto's suit was equipped with some kind of backup method of breathing…

_If their stuff even works as well as mine does in the first place…_

I got to the entrance to Mimi's house in the rainforest, and found myself at the door, but I raised my hand to open it…

And froze.

_If I see those two together again, it's just gonna make me think of Papika and Cocona... What I want and what I can't have. _

Mimi switched out of love, to protect Cocona. If I switched... I wouldn't be doing it for reasons I'd be proud of. _As much as I love Cocona and want to be with her, I can't. To take Cocona for myself when she's happy being with Papika would be wrong..._

I turned my back to the front door and slumped on the ground, resting against it, and sighed. I thought about the alternative Pure Illusion, where I kept running into different Coconas. One of them, I never actually saw, I could only hear her voice, but she asked me what I wanted. The first time I'd ever been asked that... And I replied. I said that I wanted a companion. Someone to be by my side, and be there with me. Someone to explore Pure Illusion with... I also said that I wanted to be free from Asclepius at the time, because I felt stuck. _I guess I got a part of my wish at least..._

But I wanted the rest of my wish too... A companion... I mean, I have the twins, and Nyunyu, and Papika... I had lots of companions. Lots of people I could travel with and show Pure Illusion to... But... It didn't feel... _right_ with them.

I had a little more to that wish I never quite said out loud. When I said I wanted a companion, I meant someone that I could share a sunset with... That might not make much sense, honestly I'm not sure I entirely get it myself, but... I can just picture, sitting on a grassy hill with someone. Maybe we'd just finished laughing at a joke or something, but we'd both be there, sitting side-by-side. Smiling and content. I'd be with one special person I loved more than anyone else in the world...

Thinking about that now kinda hurt, and I winced. The only person I felt fit that description at the moment was Cocona. I thought a little bit about going back to that alternative Pure Illusion, with the nameless Cocona who asked me the question in the first place, so I could try and hang out with all the other Cocona's there again. Cocohi seemed pretty friendly, and I had a lot of fun with Coco-chan at that street festival... And Coconi, even though she never said a word, seemed very sweet...

_But they weren't _my _Cocona... _

_**(("Switch with me… and she can be yours..."))**_

I grit my teeth together hard. _Screw you!_

I was about to get up, go for another run in the rainforest, to try and wowk these stupid thoughts out of my head, when the breathing mask gave another sharp BEEP! As it died. I took all the head gear off and… the humidity was starting to get to me. Something about the warm heavy air made me feel tired…

Before I knew it, I'd fallen asleep.

* * *

I opened my eyes and found myself in a room.

Everything was enclosed, no doors or windows, no furniture, beyond a single mirror in the middle of the room. The sight of it pissed me off and I groaned.

_For craps sake_, "Can't you just leave me alone?" I shouted, stamping a foot on the ground, trying to vent some of my anger somehow_. _Maybe it was my own fault though for thinking about all those other Cocona's earlier, maybe I'd unintentionally summoned the mirror._ Hell, I should just take it out while I have the chance_. I charged for the mirror and-

"That's the welcome I get?"

I stopped dead in my tracks, my arms flailing a little at my side as I tried to keep my balance. I knew that voice...

"Cocoro?" I tentatively asked. The mirror, instead of reflecting myself, shifted, like static on an old TV before my form became that of a purple-eyed Cocona. Her arms were folded, and she flicked her head, to try and get a stray piece of hair out of her face. Much like before as well, I felt odd as I watched her move, it was at normal speed, but every other 'frame' of animation seemed to be missing. Seeing Cocoro there, instead of my red-eyed self had made me happier than I'd ever been to see a reflective surface.

"You need to move on," Cocoro said, just as harsh as I remember her being.

"Move on?"

"You're seeing me, aren't you?" she asked, "You called me 'Cocoro' in your head. You basically called me 'Heart'. You made a choice to return to the real world, all that time ago, and you chose to help Cocona and Papika. Cocona's made a choice too, and she's chosen Papika. Not. You."

I took a step backwards, as if the words she was lashing out with had physically struck me.

"I know it hurts to hear, but you need to move on," I was surprised that Cocoro put her hand over her heart as she said that, and her look went from one of anger to... sorrow. "Please, Yayaka, you have to move on. You have to-"

_**"((SWITCH WITH ME!))"**_

Cocoro's eyes blazed red, blue hair turned violent yellow, and although her demeanour wasn't the most pleasant, it became almost demonic, as her form shifted and became that of the red-eyed Yayaka, whose piercing gaze felt like it was trying to tear the soul from my body. The hand that was to her chest, thrust forward to touch her side of the glass, and began to push its way through.

I backed up against the wall, trying to get away from the dark version of myself that was trying to force its way through the mirror-

* * *

I jolted awake. The sketchy sky was shades of heavy shaded black, and the rest of the world appeared to be inverted, with white outlines to the objects and the ground. _Night time… _

A scream tore through the air, before I could think about anything else.

"Papika!" I leapt to my feet as I cried her name. _What the hell is going on? I would have thought Mimi would only pick safe worlds to stay in, or that she'd have some kind of powers to keep anything hostile out… _That may well have been the case, but whatever had happened could get past all of that… And I had a bad feeling it was related to the dream I just had...

I kicked the door down, and spun around in all directions. _Where did that scream come from?! _Even though the building was small, it could have come from any room, and if Papika was under attack, seconds mattered. If I ended up going to the wrong place…

Thankfully, I felt a little tug in the bond between me and Papika at that point, and I let it guide me to where she was.

The sound of shattering glass came from the room I was being guided to, and I put a hand to my rocket belt, ready to shoot, but it turned out whatever it was had just escaped, leaving scraps of broken glass all over the floor. Papika was huddled on a bed, her eyes huge with terror, a hand to her chest, and hyperventilating. Mimi was standing guard by the window the attacker had escaped through, making sure it didn't come back.

I went over to Papika, who barely registered the fact either of us were there. I waved a hand in front of her face, and her blank gaze turned to mine for an instant, before she screamed again. Mimi twitched, alert at the sound, but didn't move from the window. I, however, slammed a hand over Papika's mouth.

_'You idiot! What if you call it back here? What if it has friends?!_' I wanted to yell at her, my old instincts of being in Pure Illusion coming back to me. Instead, I turned her head to face me, and stared into her eyes, taking a deep breath to try and clam myself down. _Papika's scared. She doesn't need to be shouted at right now. What would Cocona do?_

"You're safe, Papika. Me and Mimi are here. If anything comes back, we can handle it." My voice wavered a little, not quite used to reassuring people, but I tried to put as much as I could into it. "Take deep breaths now, Papika, slowly. Calm down, and tell us what's going on here."

"You… You…" she stammered. She kept repeating that word over and over. It was enough to make my heart drop. Eventually, Papika blinked, and some of the life came back to her eyes. They were locked onto mine, and filled with fear. What Papika said after only confirmed what I suspected. "Shadowy… and red eyes... Angry red eyes..."

A spike of horror stabbed through me, as I turned to the broken window.

My dark reflection.

It's escaped.

* * *

_Authors note: I was planning to have this chapter, or the main events of this chapter happen a lot earlier in the fic, but things happened, and I ended up saving it for later. I'm sorry it took so long for this to get going, but hey, think of it this way, I'd consider this about half-way through or so, so if you're enjoying the story, you can expect more of it to come! (although like this chapter it may be a while before more is posted, but still, something to look forward to!)_

__Also, for anyone curious, the new Flip Flap armour I described, I picture to look like this: (colon slash slash) (slash) a (slash) uYEeOq6 remove spaces and add the correct symbols to see the sketch I drew for Toto's armour__


	10. Chapter 9

_Yuyu_

"Yayaka's reported her findings, now let's send you guys out!" Hidaka said. No hesitation. Moment Yayaka cut off contact, he spoke. "Now, come on, get moving!"

"But… Hidaka-san, shouldn't we wait for Yayaka—" Cocona tried to speak. Interrupted.

"Cocona, I understand your concern, but we need to test our equipment as soon as possible, now come on!" Hidaka herded us to Thomasson. Toto clambered to top compartment, along with Nyunyu. Cocona stayed outside for a while, as did I. Both uncertain about going. Would rather wait for Yayaka. _Orders from Doctor Hidaka and Doctor Salt: Go to Pure Illusion. Am Hidaka's assistant. Should obey._

Moved into lower compartment of Thomasson. New arm clanged against inner walls. Startled. Can't quite feel new arm. Can feel something at base of remains of old arm, but no weight. Pulled back left sleeve of armour, revealing false arm. Touched it with real hand.

Cold, smooth metal. Tried to move fingers on it. Metal hand twitched. Functional at least, but will likely be unreliable. _Possibly stronger in Pure Illusion? _Looked down at amorphous necklace. _Belonged to Yayaka. Kept me safe in other world with Papika and Cocona. Will keep me safe if armour doesn't…_

_But can't keep Toto and Nyunyu safe…_

"Excuse me, Yuyu, but can you move over a little bit, please?" Cocona's voice. Shifted over to make room for Cocona-onee-chan. Both sat at opposite walls, facing each other. She smiled at me. "Thank you."

"Cocona-onee-chan. Yuyu," Toto spoke from above. Reached one hand down.

"Me too!" Nyunyu lowered one hand too. Assume Nyunyu and Toto holding each other's hands above too. _Synchronisation. Need to be as connected as possible. _Took Toto's hand in mine. _Twin brother. Strongest connection. _Cocona took Nyunyu's hand. _Nyunyu made from amorphous influenced by Cocona. Bond should be sufficient._ Reached her remaining hand for my new metal arm… Was hesitant to take. _What if metal arm detaches? Is connection stable? _Pulled Flip Flap armour sleeve back over metal arm. _Cocona could potentially be lost if arm disconnects. Nyunyu may not be strong enough to hold Cocona._

"Are you still worried about Yayaka?" Cocona asked. Voice soft. Concerned. Tried to reassure. "She'll be fine, Yuyu. She's with Papika, and Papika will keep her safe."

Appreciate Cocona trying to help, but guess was wrong. _Better bond with Yayaka than Cocona. Worked with Yayaka for years after all. _But Cocona was family. Biological child of Mimi's.

_Family…_

'_I might not know some of you very well, but you're my family and I love all of you!' _Cocona's words. _'Love'…_ Mind got stuck on that word. _Hand went to chest when heard it. Felt warm. Rare experience. Rare feeling. Looked at Yayaka. Yayaka didn't seem happy at those words. Hands were shaking. Body tense. Seemed… hurt. Cocona didn't look at her when saying we were loved._

…Admit, part of me was glad. Told Cocona the truth about Yayaka because I was scared.

Don't want Yayaka taken away from me.

_((Yayaka is with Papika now. Papika only.)) _Irritation. _Papika loves Cocona. Cocona loves Papika. Yayaka not included in that. No need to worry._

"Yuyu?"

said name again. Jolted to attention. Looked at her outstretched hand, and slowly, took it with my metal one. Had to focus hard to hold it and retain grip.

Air in Thomasson changed. Could feel Toto focusing. Unsure about Nyunyu. Looked at Cocona. Her eyes were closed. Squeezed Nyunyu's hand gently. Watched her fingers close on my metal hand, too. Wanted to feel. Couldn't feel.

Felt alone.

But could see not alone.

Felt Toto's grip on my hand tighten, as if could sense my distress.

_Not alone. _

Closed my eyes. _Not alone. With family. All Mimi's children. Wish to travel to Pure Illusion…_

Felt a pull…

* * *

Pure Illusion. Landed flat to the ground. Sandy ground. Ochre and tan. I stood up. Sky pink. Shades of salmon and cherry blossom. Yellow scratches in sky too, like tiger stripes. Temperature was cold, despite warm colours. Wide open ocean below… Deep blue water. Became worried. Endless expanse of water, span of entire horizon. _Don't want to drown._ Felt uneasy. Took steps backwards, away from water, closer to land. Feet were cold.

Could hear battery pack on back kick in. Whirr to life. Padded body grew warm as electronic heating system began to work. Kept body warmer than usual temperature. A little uncomfortable. Feet and real hand still a little cold, but not as much. Appears successful for me so far. Can move. Feel like won't freeze. Good.

Looked to Toto and Nyunyu. Standing close together, Nyunyu was fine. Had a hand on Toto's arm. Toto was hunched over, hand to mask. _Struggling breathing? _Hope not.

"Yuyu… Nyunyu…" Toto's voice faint. A whisper. Turned back to him. His back rose and fell, slowly, not quickly_. Is fine after all? _Uncertain. Worried. My breathing became fast. Heart began to race. _Remain calm. Could end up like Toto if not careful_. Too late. Mild panic. _Suits meant to protect us. Don't seem to be working. _Anger at Hidaka. _Said this would help! Not helping Toto!_ _Yayaka was right…_

"Toto, can you breathe?" Important question. Needs to be answered. _Please answer. _Heard a loud gasp from Toto.

"Breathing gear… functional…" Toto said, hand clenched to chest. He slowly stood up straight from hunching over. _Seems okay. _Relief. Toto raised his hand to left eye, and pressed a tooth on his skull mask, making a glass screen pop up. Streams of information appearing and disappearing. Tilted my head to the side, curious. Similar to old eyepiece, but not the same.

"Different visor. What happened?" Asked him.

"Old one exploded in Pure Illusion. Overloaded by Yayaka's transformation." He answered. Pause. Spoke again. "Approximately 10 hours of air remaining," he said. "No particular mission this time?"

Shook head. "Hidaka wanted armour tested. That's it." Said that, but remembered Hidaka wanting samples. Might take some as I go. _Will help Yayaka. Hidaka will request less from her. Will help Hidaka. Wants to study them. Useful._

He nodded confirmation. His armour seemed to be okay. Allowing him to move and breathe. Didn't appear to be in pain. Wondered if I would have been in the same condition. Was about to remove necklace to test when-

"Where's Cocona-onee-chan?" Nyunyu asked.

Hand instantly dropped to side. Began to scan area for Cocona. Began to worry all over again. "Should have landed with us…" Looked down at left arm. Metal arm that was meant to be holding Cocona's hand. Tried to move new hand. Didn't react. Face pulled into snarl. _New arm, but still defective…_ Must have loosened grip. My fault Cocona is gone. _Should have waited for Yayaka to return… …May not have made difference. _Annoyed.

"Need to find Cocona-onee-chan," Toto said. "Stay together. Don't split up. Suits may be functional, but could still fail."

"Will be faster to split up and search," Argued with him, loud. Unusual for me to do so, but angry. Wanted to take it out on something. "All have Hole devices. Can retreat if required."

"Nyunyu inexperienced. Should remain a team. No communications."

"Have communications." Moved good hand over arm. Lifted panel, revealing buttons and a speaker. Spoke into them to prove a point. "Communications functional." Heard voice echo from Toto's eyepiece.

"Also, unreliable" Toto countered. "Technology still experimental. We stay together."

Was staring a challenge at me. Thought about his words and points. _If Nyunyu went with Toto as a pair, and Toto's armour failed, Nyunyu would have to retreat too, being unfamiliar with combat or Pure Illusion. Wouldn't want her to get lost. _Didn't add remote communications to Nyunyu's armour. Gadgets included a flare, but no guarantee that could help. If Nyunyu paired with me and something happened to Toto, he may not make it back in time. Felt bad for suggesting to split up. _Toto most vulnerable. Nyunyu inexperienced… And I only have one working arm. If all forced to retreat, no guarantee will be able to return to this world. Cocona would be alone. Abandoned._

His thoughts were rational. Made sense.

Nodded, agreeing to his idea. "…Sorry." Apologised for suggestion.

Toto nodded, accepting it. He seemed… stressed. Unsure why. Gestured with his hand for Nyunyu and me to follow.

* * *

Toto lead us away from the ocean. Fine with that. Nyunyu's metal ring detached from her armour, and she was riding it, hovering over the sand. Angular russet towers spiked upwards from the ground. Sand at their bases swirled in a bright red spiral. No doors or entrances to the towers to search. Could detect points on the towers to strike if destruction required. Loose brick here. Weak foundation there. Likely unrequired, but am bored and annoyed. Search for Cocona revealed nothing. No disturbances in the area to suggest Cocona was here.

Toto turned his head side to side before walking left. Nyunyu followed without question, humming. I also followed… But noticed some of the information on Toto's eyepiece was… unrelated to current mission. 'How to talk to girls' was title of one of them. If Yayaka saw, she would have teased him about Ruri-chan.

_Yayaka… _Sand was similar colour to her gold hair…

Hand ended up over heart. Could feel it beating quickly in chest. Scolded self. _Not time to think about Yayaka._

But thinking of Yayaka brought up a point.

"Able to track Cocona?" I asked. _Assume Flip Flap never removed Asclepius tracker in her from all that time ago. Should be able to find her that way. _

Toto flinched. Possibly aware he'd been caught. His screen quickly flicked to display tracking information, lines of text only. No pictures or shapes. _Odd_. Kept blinking on and off. Toto's eyes narrowed.

"Cocona found… But incompatible technology. Asclepius tracker dislikes new parts."

"Arm made from old parts." Held it out to him, an offering. "Might resolve issue."

Toto approached metal arm. Tried to find way to connect the two. None available. Shook his head. Nyunyu had hovered over to us, wondering why we'd stopped and saw our problem.

"I can help!" She said. Was expecting her to pull out a cable to allow linking of devices. Instead, she pressed some buttons on her metal ring. A flat holographic blue screen floated over us, showing a rough map of the area. Spiral sand towers were marked, as were our coordinates…

And Cocona's.

"There!" Spotted her signal on the map. Faint, but just about visible. Yellow blinking light near the top of the map. Toto gazed at the map in wonder. Quickly pressed a tooth on his breathing mask. CLICK!

Suddenly, sparks.

Nyunyu hopped off her ring as it short circuited. Looked like she wanted to try and pat at it, as if to stop fire forming, but Toto held her back.

"It's broken!" She declared, tilting her head to the side.

Toto noticed Nyunyu was upset, but didn't verbally respond to her. Instead: "Took a picture of map before destruction. Can find Cocona."

Confused. "Couldn't read map and remember that way?" Asked him.

No answer. His behaviour in Pure Illusion is strange. Not seen him like this before. Not normally influenced by worlds, made from amorphous. Amorphous originates from Pure Illusion. Immune to effects… _Something bothering Toto… _

Wanted to ask, but Toto was moving. Leading us to where blip on map was.

* * *

Travelled for a while. Approximately two hours, according to Toto's eyepiece. Announced out loud how many hours of air remaining for him (eight). Sounded strange when speaking. Suddenly he stopped in center of red sand spiral. Looked down. Spun in circle. Looked down again.

"Signal came from here," he said.

"Underground?" I asked. He nodded.

"What if she's moved in that time?" Nyunyu asked. Question annoyed Toto. Saw him tense up at mention of possibility.

"Signal came from here." He repeated. Sounded adamant, as if stating that would make it true. _If Cocona moved, will take longer to find. More time spent here, less remaining air for Toto. _Began to understand why he seemed stressed.

Had another thought. "Cocona-onee-chan has a phone. Mobile communications."

Toto frowned. "Cocona-onee-chan's phone not modified like Yayaka's. No signal from here."

"What about tracking the phone itself?!" Nyunyu's suggestion. Both looked at her.

"Possible. Can try," Toto sounded relieved. I nodded. Opened panel on arm. _Made from old parts. Connected to Yayaka's visor previously. May have stored Cocona's phone data on it._

Stopped. Realised: "Data could be accessed, but no way to display." Arm only has speakers. No screen.

Toto irritated at that. "Can't do anything!" He said, loud. Slammed fist on red sand spiral below…

…and swiftly sunk through. Action was almost instantaneous, but if slowed, would have looked like being pulled downwards. Sand dipping as it swallowed him. No time to try and grab solid surface.

"Toto!" "Toto-Onii-sama!" Both called his name. No response. Knelt down. Tried to dig.

Hand wrenched downwards. Felt sand scrape along face as dragged through. Felt panicked again. _Drowning… Drowning in sand…_

Experience over fast, thankfully. Hit solid ground. No sand. Shook head and wiped face. Looked around.

"Toto!" Saw him on the ground. Got up and went over to him. _Breathing equipment damaged? _Checked quickly. Still intact.

Relief.

"…too!" Heard Nyunyu as she fell through sand. Ran to try and catch her. Succeeded. Lowered her to ground and looked up at ceiling. Red spiral of sand, mimicking surface…

But looking below, saw shades of pink, and yellow stripes. Land and sky appeared to be swapped. Scanned horizon. Towers from sandy land stabbing downwards, like stalactites. Ground beneath feet felt solid. Contrast to soft squishy sand before.

"Toto! Yuyu! Nyunyu!" _Cocona's voice. _Looked around. Saw her running towards us, waving one arm. But… something behind her. Black. Human-sized. Unsure if structure or living person. _Could be dangerous._ Raised metal arm… Tried to. Couldn't. Annoyed… But prepared.

Didn't have rocket belt like Toto, but had weapon available. Drew a black rod from loop on belt and pressed button. Sharp blade shot out. Inspired by Yayaka's collapsible water bottle and fighting game at the arcade. Learnt some sword fighting. Practiced with Papika.

_Hope knowledge is sufficient._

Toto and Nyunyu approached me. Must have seen it too. Toto's hand went to eyepiece, either to scan or set target for his rocket belt. Nyunyu had arms folded, hands over tools on forearms, ready to draw if required.

Gasp from Toto, "Impossible…"

Didn't look at him. Didn't speak. Kept eye on potential enemy.

Dark shape suddenly appeared closer. _Moving. Movement suggests alive. Assume hostile. _"Cocona-onee-chan!" Called a towards it, sword at side. Nyunyu followed, hands still over tools. Toto stayed behind, ready to shoot rockets. Dark shape came closer. Towards us. Fast, but not running. Humanoid in shape. Red eyes.

Cocona turned to look at it, after hearing warning.

Shadow tackled her, forcing Cocona to the ground.

And then… Shadow was gone.

Didn't drop weapon, kept sword raised. Reached Cocona and surrounded her. Took position next to others, back-to-back. Can attack and defend from any direction and protect Cocona.

"Toto, what was that?" Asked him. No response. Annoyed. _Expressed surprise. Must know something. _About to ask again, louder, when thought I heard something behind me. Spun around. Saw darkness floating around Cocona, like smoke. Faint whisps… But there. _Suspicious. _Heard a very faint voice _((taking Yayaka away from you))_. Anger.

Pointed sword at her.

"Yuyu?" Cocona sounded scared. Wide eyes never left sword.

"Identify yourself!" Demanded. Noted weak points. Upper body hunching over slightly, torso better defended. Hands would be ready to grab upwards if required. Attack at legs would disable opponent… In theory. _If real Cocona would do damage. If creature from Pure Illusion… hard to tell. _Smoke was faint, but there. _Corruption? Possession? Illness? _Uncertain of reason.

Toto and Nyunyu faced her too, hearing me. Nyunyu still prepared to attack. Toto seemed to be scanning. Cocona didn't move. After short time…

"Scan shows Asclepius tracker in left elbow." Toto said, hand dropping from eyepiece. "Pure Illusion unlikely to mimic Asclepius technology. Is Cocona."

Nyunyu dropped her arms, tools still there. No weapons in hands. _She trusts Toto._ Can see why. Toto's speech logical. Voice of reason… But was still wary. Still held sword out, as a threat. Cocona's face never changed. Still scared…

Blinked, and faint dark smoke was gone. Felt… Odd. Began to wonder if originally there, or imagination. Mind felt clearer.

_Trust Toto… _Began to lower weapon. Cocona relaxed. _Should apologise. Yayaka would. _

"Sorry," said to her. "Wanted to be certain. Pure Illusion is dangerous."

"How did nyu get separated?" Nyunyu asked, arm raised in air.

"I'm… not sure," Cocona said. "I thought we were all holding onto each other well enough… I thought I could hear…" She paused. Face screwed up, as if trying to remember something. Momentary action, her face was normal a second later. Continued speaking as if never did that. "I just remember being here when I landed, away from all of you."

Tilted head to side. Felt suspicious again, hearing her story… But nothing I can do. Toto and Nyunyu showed no acknowledgement of Cocona's odd behaviour.

"Armour tested," Toto said. "Return to Flip Flap?" He sounded keen to ask that. _Limited air remaining. Doesn't want to risk danger._

Cocona and Nyunyu agreed. Was suspicious, but no point holding others back here. Nodded.

All held hands and focused.

Felt a pull as Hole opened and we went back.

* * *

_Yayaka_

Papika wanted to get out of that world as soon as she could. Kinda couldn't blame her for that. Mimi sounded like she was on the verge of kicking us out anyway. She quickly said goodbye to Papika before we left, giving her a quick hug, and glared at me, over Papika's shoulder. I could almost hear her accusing me of letting that thing loose in Pure Illusion. _She wouldn't be wrong in a way… but what the hell could I do to stop it?_

When we stepped out into the sketchbook jungle again, Papika grabbed my hands without hesitation and began to focus, ready to go back to Flip Flap. Her hands were a little sweaty, and she seemed to be shaking where she stood. I felt guilty looking at her. _My shadow escaped and attacked her… It's my fault she's like this right now._

"I'm sorry, Papika." _I should have been there, then I could have at least fought it off and tried to keep you safe. I should have smashed that stupid damn mirror… Hell, I _would _have done, if it wasn't for Cocoro stopping me and telling me to move on from Cocona…_ I began to get mad at myself, for all the actions I could have taken, and didn't.

Papika didn't speak, but she squeezed my hands. I wasn't sure why, and my bond with her wasn't really telling me. It could have been a gesture of comfort or forgiveness, or it could have been a 'shut up and help me get back home already'.

Well, if it was that last one, she probably had a point. _We should head back as soon as possible. We need to warn the others that... There's something on the loose out there._

My grip on Papika's hands tightened and I took a deep breath to try and calm down. _Papika needs to go back home to safety now. We need to get back…_

For a second I was worried we weren't powerful enough to make a Hole to get back, and I'd have to work out how the hell to use the million Hole devices in my weapon belt pocket, when I felt a sharp pull…

* * *

_Burning to death in a red and grey wasteland. Searing ash, harsh heat. My skin was scorching… I worked a Hole device before. I saved myself from that hellish land…_

_But there was a shine at my feet… Red shards, buried amongst grey… _

_I was forced to kneel, too hurt to stand. My hand touched those shards…_

* * *

It took a second for me to become aware of where I was. My memory of the first Pure Illusion I went to came back to me suddenly. I slapped my hand against the metal side of the Thomasson, catching the door, and managing to slide it open, before I realised I was back at Flip Flap.

I scrambled out of the metal cupboard, and stepped into the big room.

"There's something in Pure Illusion! You need to—" I cut off, when I Realised the room was empty beyond Hidaka. "Where are the others?"

"In Pure Illusion!" He announced, arms folded and smiling. "You came back with your report nice and quickly, so I sent Cocona and her amorphous siblings out to confirm their stuff worked as well as yours!"

My hands were tight fists at my side. If I was a dog, I would have been growling a threat, ready to leap at the—

_Dog. Papika. _I forgot all about being mad at she knew what I was thinking, I'm not sure she would have appreciated me thinking to check on her because I thought about dogs, which I've compared her to in the past, but still.I turned around and saw Papika huddled up in the upper compartment of the Thomasson.

A part of me really regretted looking at her. She seemed… haunted. Her eyes that were normally happy and welcoming, had a glassy stare to them, not really taking anything in. My heart dropped. _This is my fault…_

_Wait, Hidaka said the others were in Pure Illusion too. If they got here by Thomasson…_

I grabbed Papika's arm (Sorry Papika!) and yanked her out of the upper compartment… Just in time, as I saw Toto and Nyunyu appear in the upper half, and Cocona and Yuyu appear in the bottom half. I didn't know what would happen if Papika was still in there when everyone came back, maybe she'd be fine and just bump her head, or maybe they'd end up all spliced together, but I'd rather be on the safe side. I was about to ask them all if they were okay when before I could speak.

"Papika!" Cocona pretty much leapt out of the lower section of the Thomasson, and rushed over to the pink-haired girl. Papika's only reaction was to turn her head in Cocona's direction. Cocona saw the look on Papika's face and let out a quiet gasp, before pulling the pink-haired girl into her arms.

"Cocona…" Papika's voice was weak as she whimpered the blue-haired girl's name. Cocona's brown eyes were full of hurt and worry, seeing how disturbed Papika seemed. She kissed the pink-haired girl on the forehead, before holding her close.

That was normally the moment the voice in my head would have taunted me, about the fact Cocona seemed more concerned with Papika than with me, but I was met with silence. You know, I thought I would have been happy the day that stupid thing finally went away… Instead, the thought filled me with dread. _The only reason it's not bothering me now is because it's in Pure Illusion now… It attacked Papika and fled… _I know before, back when I was working for Asclepius and hated Papika for appearing in the first place, I probably would have been happy that something wanted to try and take her out of the equation, so I could have Cocona to myself…

And now it'd actually happened… Things have changed since then, and now, I considered Papika a dear friend of mine. Someone I've grown to love a lot… _And my darker side almost killed her…_

I thought my guilt was bad enough, for lying to Cocona for most of her life, and our friendship being built on it… Cocona didn't look at me when she said she loved everyone like family… and now I could understand why she didn't look at me… Why I probably wasn't included in that… _Because of my own stupid selfish wishes, I'd almost gotten an innocent person killed…_

_Papika's innocent…_

I left the room. I couldn't stay in there and face the people I'd hurt. I found the cupboard I'd changed into my Flip Flap armour in, and slumped to the ground, with my back to the door.

_This is all my fault…_

* * *

_Yuyu_

Noticed Yayaka leave the room. Wasn't sure why. Possibly hurt seeing Cocona and Papika together… Hand went over heart. _Can understand hurt. _Wanted to find Yayaka, to try and help. Turned to leave, when felt a hand touch my shoulder. Looked to see Toto.

"Needs time alone," he said. My mouth pulled in small line. Wanted to disregard and go help. _Toto knows these things. More friends at school than me. Better with people. _Didn't move. Wanted to, but didn't. Only looked in direction Yayaka went. _Want to help. Can't help. _

Cocona lifted Papika from the ground, carefully. "It's okay, Papika, you're safe now." Heard her as guided Papika from room. Toto and Nyunyu hadn't moved. Neither did Hidaka. Frowned at him. _Sent to Pure Illusion when should have waited for Yayaka. _Annoyed at that… But need to report back.

"Equipment compatible with Pure Illusion."—

"I lost my ring!" Nyunyu said suddenly. Her head tilted to side, sad.

"We can make you a new one," Hidaka said, easily. Turned to Toto. "You could breathe okay in there?"

Toto nodded. Hidaka turned to me, taking eyes off Toto. Noticed Toto look away. Seemed agitated again. _Telling the truth? _Couldn't be sure. No time to think. Hidaka requested information: "And your new arm. How was that for you?"

Looked down at limb in question. Tried to move. Fingers shuddered, before could manage a fist. "Technically functional, but needs work." Began to wonder if Toto in similar situation with breathing mask. _Struggled to breathe at first… Seemed fine after… But doesn't mean he was fine._

Hidaka nodded, accepting answers. "Well, we'd better get to work then!"

* * *

Equipment adjustments commenced shortly after. Little I could do to participate, left arm was removed so could be worked on. Toto and Nyunyu watched eagerly as Hidaka worked. Both wearing Flip Flap armour. Toto had his eyepiece on his mask activated, likely trying to help detect problems that way… Or possibly reading about 'how to talk to girls' again. Unlikely, as he seemed focused on task.

Noticed Toto read a lot back at Asclepius. Likely studied regular human behaviour. Made sense. Best to blend in with regular students. Didn't interest me like it did him. I stuck to music, science and history books, but starting to think, should have studied too. _Still time to learn._

Was called over so arm could be connected and tested. Mostly inactive, but participating in repairs. Felt more useful. Was asked to twitch fingers or move arm. Responded in most places. Didn't in others. Toto and Nyunyu helped detect faults and applied repairs. While sitting there, mind wandered. _Yayaka left the room… Want to help. _Tried to think of ideas. _Yayaka has weapons again. Wires and explosives. Make her happy, but none require construction at the moment. Can't build anyway, no arm. Yayaka likes cream bread, likely can't leave Flip Flap while arm is being worked on…_

"_You painted this, Yuyu?" "You're… giving this to me?" _Thought about Yayaka's reaction to painting. _Called it incredible. Seemed to like it. Could draw for her. _Nodded in reaction to thought. Toto looked from arm to me. Tilted his head to the side. _Tell him? _Felt unsure about that. He seemed to know I wanted something though.

"Yuyu, can arm be moved?" he asked. Nyunyu stopped work upon question. Hidaka took a while to react, likely wondering why he seemed to be taking charge. Was odd. Looked at metal arm, being worked on. Practically shouted in head to get large reaction. Fist clenched. Wiggled fingers in small wave. Was successful. _Can carry out plan. _

"Arm seems sufficient," said out loud. Stood up from chair and tried to move at elbow. Felt like it could disconnect from shoulder. Didn't say that. "Works."

"Are you sure it's fine?" Hidaka asked. Seemed concerned. _Does he know?_

Nodded at him. A lie. But wanted to carry out plan. _Want to help Yayaka. _Turned around and left the lab. Needed to find paper and drawing utensil… And then, find Yayaka. Opened up arm panel and pressed some buttons. Code for Yayaka's tracker._ Might not help, but only idea._

_Need to try. _

* * *

_Yayaka_

I have no idea how long I spent hiding in that damn cupboard. Might have been ten minutes, but could easily have been a few hours. All I know was I was tired of feeling guilty and upset. I pulled the door open to leave and—

"Crapping hell!" I nearly leapt out of my skin. Yuyu was standing there. _Did she know where I was hiding? _ "Yuyu, please don't sneak up on me like that!" I was just about to ask her what she wanted when Yuyu spoke again.

"Sorry," she said, looking at the ground.

The apology had me taken aback, and my mouth was half hanging open, partly from the fact I was about to say something, but mostly because she'd said 'sorry' to me, a word I don't think I've ever heard her say before. _Stop being so surprised Yayaka. _I recovered quickly though. "Don't worry about it."

"Are you better?" She asked.

I blinked, not sure what to make of the question. _Did she notice how I looked before I left everyone else? _She must have done, or she probably wouldn't have asked. Once again, before I could talk, she said something else.

"Can I help?"

If Yuyu's goal was to make me look as gormless as a fish, she was succeeding. I'd open my mouth to respond, only to close it again a second later.

"What's with all the questions?" I asked. Any fluster I felt made it to my voice as well, as I sorta barked the question at her. And then I felt bad again. _I told Yuyu she's fine as she is, and here I am treating her like a freak. I shouldn't be doing this… _"Sorry." I said quickly, putting a hand to my forehead, trying to ward off the headache I could feel building. "It's been a long day. It's probably best if I'm left alone for a while."

Yuyu's head twitched to the side for a second, before righting itself. Her mouth pinched together in a thin line for a second, before returning to normal. She nodded, and looked like she was about to leave, when she stopped. Turning back to me, she held out a folded piece of paper in her right hand. Her other hand, the robotic one, was at her chest. I took the paper from her, and was about to talk again, when she ran off down the corridor.

I was already unfolding the paper by the time she'd run off, and opening it revealed…

Myself.

It was a sketch, done entirely in pen. A portrait of me with my hair in twin braids at the side of my head, and a little confident smirk on my face. I felt my heart beat a little quicker, as I carefully ran a finger over the drawing.

_Yuyu drew this for me…_

As much as I wanted to call her back and try and talk to her, so I could at least thank her for the drawing, I stopped myself. _I just told her I should probably be left alone… _With how I've been feeling today, I didn't trust myself to talk or be around people at the moment. Hell, I wanted nothing more than to just go to get some rest and go to sleep… That might be an idea actually. It's been a long day, and the sooner its tomorrow, the sooner things can become better again…

_And also the sooner my darker self can cause havoc in Pure Illusion again…_

I walked back into the cupboard and shut the door. My hand was on the handle, gripping it tightly to the point of it likely leaving an imprint in my hand, holding it shut. _It's my fault she's loose. It's my fault Papika got hurt…_

_I need to fix it. Next time I'm sent to Pure Illusion, I'm gonna stay there. I'm not gonna return to base until my shadow is dealt with..._

* * *

_Authors note: I feel my progress with my story has been... slow. I'm a little worried I might not finish it, or I might not be able to, due to scattered motivation (to the point of I wrote half of this chapter over a week or so, and the rest of it, literally half the chapter, in one day), and also the fact that because gaps between writing seem to be getting longer than I'd like them to be, that I had to read through my whole sequel fic again and make very quick/short recap notes to myself about what the hell has happened so far). I'd like to be able to finish this story, and I'll try to, to the best of my ability, for the maybe one person that isn't me, that wants this story to be finished. I know the Flip Flappers fandom is pretty small, so I don't know how many people will end up reading this story all the way through, but there's bound to be one, surely, so I'd like to be able to finish it, so I can at least give them a complete story. For anyone who gets this far, thanks for reading, and sticking with me, and I hope you're enjoying/have been enjoying the story._


	11. Chapter 10

_Yayaka_

I don't even remember falling asleep, but I woke up, so I must have done at some point. The drawing Yuyu gave me was still in my hand. Looking down at it made my chest feel warm, and I smiled… But the smile died when I remembered what I promised myself I'd do yesterday.

_This will be my last day at Flip Flap until I take out my darker self… _I folded the drawing back up, tucked it into one of my weapon belt pockets, and tried to get myself to stand up, which was a bit of a challenge, because my muscles were aching from sleeping all hunched up for so long. _Frag… Okay, not gonna sleep in a cupboard again if I can help it… _

I got up, grumbling as I did, and left the cupboard behind, trying to work out what to do next. _I never got the chance to tell Cocona and the others about the shadow that attacked Papika... _Saying something about that seemed like it should be an idea, especially since it seemed to terrify Papika so much. I felt a twinge of guilt thinking about it. _I should check up on her too, make sure she's okay, or doing better at least. _Cocona's probably with her... That thought annoyed me, but at the same time, if that was the case, then the twins and Nyunyu might not have heard about the shadow's attack. _I need to find them at least..._

I had a rough idea where I was now, in Flip Flap, or at least I knew I was near the Thomasson, and that part of the base was separated from everything else, so I could cross the shelf along the pit... and then probably just wander aimlessly until I found someone...

A couple of beeps sounded from my shoulders, and I was really confused for a second, before I remembered I was wearing my Flip Flap armour still, and I'd never changed back into my school uniform. Clicking a button on the breathing mask, which was still on my face, I activated my visor again to see written instructions flash up on the screen quickly, giving me directions to another room at Flip Flap. _Must be Toto._ I thought it was strange that he seemed to know the moment I woke up, but it was probably just a coincidence. _Either way, if he's contacting me, he must want to talk to me about something._

I briefly wondered how he knew I needed directions to wherever he was, and even then, how he knew where I was in the first place. _Yuyu didn't seem to have any trouble finding me yesterday either... _My question was answered, when I rose my left arm to stretch it, and felt the tracker Asclepius planted there all that time ago. _That would explain it... _I tended to forget the thing was there, it's been fused to my bones for years now, I'm just used to it.

Either way, I worked my way past the pit that lead to the Thomasson, and followed the directions Toto left for me on the screen, which ended up taking me to the medical room. When I got there, I saw Toto and Nyunyu both sitting at a table in there, playing chess. They were both wearing their Flip Flap equipment, which explained how Toto had managed to contact me, although he'd taken his visor/breathing mask off for the game he was playing… not that he'd really need it to beat Nyunyu at chess, he'd probably worked out every possible combination for every move the second she moved a piece…

Or he would have done before his head injury at least. Now, it was a little hard to tell if that was still the case. I mean, sure, when we played air hockey at the arcade, he was the perfect defense and nothing could get past him, but there, he only had one object to focus on. That, and when he was on the dance machine he probably got the highest score for that song on the planet, but that time, everything he needed to do was on the screen in front of him, so although there was a lot of information he knew what to do with it… Okay, he may still have been that way with chess, and be having zero trouble against Nyunyu right now. _He might even have picked Nyunyu as an opponent for that reason. She wouldn't have known about his processing power beforehand, and how it seemed to have taken a hit, so she'd have no reason to worry about him… _That or Toto was trying to teach her how to play chess, or how to think either about tactics, or how to think before acting… If it was that last one, I'd approve. _Maybe it'd stop her pointing any gun she gets her hands on at everyone she sees… _

"Hey," I said, announcing my presence, as I stepped into the room. Nyunyu's eyes never left the chess board, her intense gaze glued to the game, whereas Toto's eyes flicked in my direction and he nodded before, also, returning his attention to the game. There weren't too many pieces on the board, and it looked pretty even both sides, for number of remaining pieces, which made me wonder if that's because Toto was going easy on Nyunyu, Nyunyu having learnt fast how to play, or whether Toto's head injury had affected him more than we originally thought…

"You gave me instructions to head here, Toto. I take it you wanted to talk to me?"

Toto seemed hesitant, before finally nodding. He looked up from the chess board and spoke to Nyunyu. "Wish to speak to Yayaka alone… Can take chess board with you, so I can't cheat."

Nyunyu looked up at him, seeming a little confused. Toto smiled at her, and gestured with his hand towards the board. It was a second before Nyunyu grabbed the board, and lifted it quickly, but carefully, so none of the pieces disturbed as she left the room. I noticed as she walked past me, that the amorphous kid healing machine from Asclepius was pushed to the side of the room. Well, there was no point in returning it, I guess, but it was a little odd to see a piece of technology that was clearly Asclepius in Flip Flap's base.

"Necessary to survival," Toto said. I hadn't realised I was staring at it until he'd spoken. I turned back to him to see his head resting on his hands, which were connected under his chin. He looked a cross between thoughtful and sad. Troubled. Unlike most of the amorphous kid's expressions, that one was clear as day on his face.

"When you say that, what do you mean?" I had a bad feeling as I asked him to clarify.

Toto shifted a little, uncomfortable. The action seemed… heavy, like the sorta thing I'd expect to see from Doctor Salt, rather than Toto. I mean, out of the twins, I'd say Toto was the more 'energetic' of the two, and to see him like this… I began to worry a little. Maybe Toto knew what I was feeling, because he shot me a small smile, which I feel was meant to be reassuring, but to me, it just looked… sad.

"Flip Flap armour aids breathing in Pure Illusion… but not much else," he said. "Examination revealed dust from other world couldn't be removed from lungs… Permanent breathing difficulties regardless of equipment."

"But you seemed fine at the arcade. Hell, you were dancing like it's what you were born to do." After I'd said it, I wasn't really sure 'born' was quite the word I should have used.

If it bothered Toto at all, he didn't show it. "Have been to Pure Illusion since… Further damage done…" It was then that I noticed that he seemed to be taking deeper breaths, and bigger pauses in his sentences. "Unlikely I can dance like that again…"

He said that matter-of-factly, suggesting he wasn't bothered in the slightest, but his eyes betrayed his disappointment… As did his voice with the next thing he said, "Want to dance with Ruri-chan…"

Hearing that made my heart hurt a little, and I found it hard to look at Toto, so I looked back at the Asclepius machine. "Can't that machine fix you up, like it did for your head?"

"Would be nice… But running out of blood… Remaining samples going bad…"

I pulled up the sleeve of my Flip Flap gear and held my arm out, looking him in the eye. "If you need more blood to get it going, take mine," I said. His head twitched, as if he were surprised by my offer. Or maybe he was confused. "Asclepius needed my damn blood for something, because they kept taking it from me. My arms were basically a pincushion to them, so I'm used to it." I began to feel bitter at the thought of it, and of Toto's hesitance to take my blood. I reached out to grab a needle that was sitting on the side of the desk, and was gonna stab it in my arm myself, so he didn't have a choice, but when my hand touched the table surface, he slammed his hand down on my wrist, to keep it from moving.

"Hey, what the hell, Toto?! I'm trying to help!" I know I should have been controlling my voice, since he seemed to want to talk to me in private, but it was hard to do when he was making me mad. He took a deep breath, and I wasn't sure if he was trying to keep himself calm, or if because he'd just moved quickly, and the action was stressful for his body.

He spoke again, "Yayaka… Offer appreciated, but can't help… Not made from your blood."

I was about to yell at him, but what he said stopped me in my tracks. "You're… not made with my blood?" _Then what the crapping hell has Asclepius been taking samples from me for then?!_

As if Toto could read my thoughts, he answered my question. "Some samples from you taken, yes… Skin and hair… Helped attune to your DNA… But not made from you… Not me and Yuyu at least…"

'_Not for me and Yuyu at least'_ I thought for a second about what that could mean, when the image of the orange-eyed girl who'd left the room a few minutes ago popped into my head. Someone Asclepius made to replace me, as Toto and Yuyu couldn't get into Pure Illusion together. They needed someone else. Someone who was pretty quick to get into fights, or at least seemed ready to aim weapons at anything that could pose a threat. _She pulled a gun on Hidaka and Sayuri because they were part of Flip Flap. Turning weapons on people she doesn't know… _Even then, the amorphous she was made from had been in my possession longer than anyone else who's come into contact with it…

Toto's mouth turned up in a little smirk as I worked it out. "Would only help Nyunyu," he said, confirming my thoughts.

…_Wait a second, so if she's made from amorphous that's either Cocona's or heavily influenced by her, and my blood was used to create her... Then… in a way, Nyunyu's my little sister too._

_I have a sister… Family…_

I… didn't really know what to make of that thought.

We sat in silence for a little while, while I tried to take that in. Eventually I broke the silence, as I wondered. "But if you're sick, and need blood, can't you ask Yuyu? I mean, you're twins aren't you?"

"Can't heal naturally…" He said, tapping the scar on his forehead. "Includes normal blood regeneration… Blood taken from Yuyu would be permanent… Wouldn't be right…"

_Wouldn't be right… Like if I broke up Papika and Cocona, just because I wanted Cocona for myself… _I got mad thinking about that, and my hand on the desk tightened around the needle that was there, causing the glass to break, and shatter, causing me to hiss with pain as shards slashed my skin. It was an accident, I'd forgotten the thing was there, but a bitter part of me thought that I deserved it.

Toto lifted his hand from my wrist immediately, and walked over to one of the higher up cupboards in the medical room, finding some bandages and a bottle of what I'd guess was some sort of disinfectant. He got to work quickly, turning my hand over, and picking off stray pieces of glass, before applying the disinfectant (Which made me wince, and hurt more than the glass), cleaning the wound, and wrapped the bandages around my hand.

This wasn't the first time he'd acted as a doctor to me. Hell, the most recent time was in this same room maybe two weeks ago, as he helped me recover from the injuries, he and Yuyu inflicted on me so Cocona and Papika would take me back to Flip Flap, as Asclepius would have killed me if I returned.

_He cares about me… _Even though I'd just thought about when Toto and Yuyu had beaten me up pretty bad, I felt warm. _They were doing it to protect me… _

"Thanks, Toto." I said, when he'd finished. It wasn't long until I began to curse myself again though. _I completely forgot to ask Mimi if she could use whatever power she had to fix the twins… _And after what happened to Papika, I doubted she'd be happy to welcome me to any world she happened to be in. _Hell, she'd probably launch me into the nearest volcano in the area to get rid of me after I unleased that shadow…_

_The shadow… I need to tell him. _"When me and Papika were in Pure Illusion, she was attacked by…" I didn't really want to admit I was the reason behind the fact it existed, but he needed to know. "A shadow with red—"

"Red eyes?"

My eyes widened to the point I thought they could have rolled out of their sockets if someone tapped me on the back of my head. Shock was understatement for what I felt. "H-how do you know that?"

"Saw same thing…" He answered. "Attacked Cocona…"

_Wait, it attacked Cocona? _That… confused me. _But why the hell would my shadow attack Cocona? _I then had a thought that was worse. _It seemed to be getting more aggressive every time I saw it… Maybe it doesn't care who it attacks, and it'll just go after anyone in Pure Illusion…_

_Mimi lives in Pure Illusion… _

She knew something had attacked Papika, and seemed suspicious that I knew something about it. I know she was pretty much on the verge of kicking me out the moment after the attack, but still, that thing shouldn't be in Pure Illusion in the first place, and now it was free to… do whatever it wanted. _And it's attacked Cocona and Papika, two of the kindest people I knew_. I don't know if it had any intention of going after Mimi too, but still. _Cocona might not have known her mother for very long, but with how much she cares about everyone, she'll probably be devastated if anything happened to her… And it'll be my fault if anyone gets killed by that thing…_

_I still don't know if Cocona's forgiven me for lying to her, but either way, if her mother ended up dead because of my shadow, and my stupid damn selfish wishes… She'll never forgive me…_

Although my hand was bandaged up, I clenched my fist, tight, causing some splashes of red to appear on the white cloth, and fresh pain spread along the palm of my hand. _And if any of the others got killed… I could never forgive myself…_

"Yayaka?" Toto's voice was concerned.

"It's my fault…" I said. "I need to go to Pure Illusion deal with it…"

I turned to Toto and looked him in the eyes. _Toto trusts me. He told me about his crush, and he told me about how Pure Illusion is affecting him more regardless of equipment…_

I hated myself for the next thought I had. _You can't get to Pure Illusion alone… If I asked him to come with me, he'd have a perfect reason to ditch the mission and head back to base. I could deal with the problem of my shadow being loose, and I can hunt it down and destroy it, and he can use a Hole device to go back home and be safe…_

"Are nyu guys done talking yet?" Nyunyu chose that point to come back into the room, I'd guess taking the large pause in speech as a sign we'd finished. I wondered how much of it she heard, if she was listening in… I also observed, that she was no longer carrying the chessboard she and Toto were playing on, and thought she must've just dumped it out in the corridor, when I saw Papika's robot wheel into the room, carrying it a little precariously. A number of the pieces had tipped over, and I couldn't be sure, but I think there was one less on the board.

"Buu-chan came with a message from Salt-Sama and Hidaka-sama!" she said all of this, with one hand raised in the air. "They want a team to gather samples from Pure Illusion!"

I turned to Toto, and we exchanged a look. _He could potentially die if he goes to Pure Illusion again… Not just from anything we'd face in there, but just by going… But I need him to come with me… If it was just me and Nyunyu, even if she did listen to my orders, I don't think I could just hand her a bunch of rocks and order her back to base without her being asked a bunch of questions when she gets back…_

I'd never said anything out loud of my plans to him, but his eyes narrowed a little at me, and I felt a weak twinge in the bond between us that'd begun to form in the dusty world. _Can he pick up on what I'm feeling, like Papika can? _

Toto turned to Nyunyu, and replied to her, "We will go to Pure Illusion for Hidaka…"

"Okay!" having an answer, Nyunyu merrily wandered off, probably to pass the message on, or head to the Thomasson herself, if she wanted to come with us. Well, if she did, at least I'd have Toto with me which would be my main concern, but still, I couldn't help feeling guilty as I looked at him. Even though he seemed to know I wanted him to come with me, and he willingly said he'd go, I felt like I was using him. _I should give him another chance to say no._

"Hey, Toto?" I felt awkward talking and looked away from him. "You don't have to come with us you know, not if you're that sick…"

"Want to go… Might be last time I can see Pure Illusion…" he said. He spoke as if it wasn't a big deal at all. I heard him shift from his seat, as he got up to head to the Thomasson.

I didn't get up and follow him for a little while. _If we're heading out right now, I'm not gonna have a chance to say goodbye to Cocona and the others…_ I caught sight of some paper and a pen lying on one of the desks nearby, and quickly scribbled down a message for them, before chasing after him.

* * *

"WHAT THE HELL TOOK YOU SO LONG?" Hidaka roared as soon as I stepped into the Thomasson room.

I didn't bother replying and just strode into the room, and shut myself in the lower part of the Thomasson. _I guess at least when I'm in Pure Illusion I won't have to deal with Hidaka at all… _I didn't quite realise I was sharing the compartment with anyone until I felt Toto nudge his leg against mine. I wondered what the heck he was doing down here instead of being in the top compartment.

"Couldn't climb…" he said quietly, his voice muffled by his skull-design breathing mask. Nyunyu held her hands down for both of us to take, which Toto and I did. Toto then reached for my hand… and I hesitated. Not because the only hand I had free was the one that'd gotten cut up and earlier, but because I felt bad again about Toto coming along with us in his condition. _He couldn't even manage climbing into the upper part of the Thomasson… He shouldn't be doing this… _

"Yayaka… It's okay… Want to go…" He said quietly, still holding his hand out. I looked him in the eyes, trying to find any hint that he could be lying, and saw none. _He knows I need him there. He's doing this for me…_

"I'll keep you safe while we're out there," I promised, as I reached my hand out for his. I saw his cheeks rise slightly, as he smiled under his mask, before he closed his eyes, and I followed suit, trying to synch up my thoughts to Toto's and Nyunyu's.

It took a little while, as my mind kept drifting in other directions, so it took me by surprise, whenI felt the sharp tug…

* * *

I woke up and couldn't see my hands… Or not clearly at least. I pushed myself to stand up from being flat to the ground and… felt my square-shaped hand press against a completely flat surface. As my legs came together so I could balance, I thought I could sorta feel them slot into each other for a moment. _What the hell?_

I looked down, an action which was a lot sharper/jerkier than I was expecting and saw, much like my hands, that my legs were squares, and that my feet were just smaller squares connected to them. Something about this struck me as familiar…

I spun around, which thankfully, was pretty easy to do, but it was also really damn weird. I didn't move my feet at all, I just sorta… It's like I was standing on a record player, I was turning, and I could look around…

I'd say the place had tons of rolling hills, but there wasn't a smooth or rounded surface to be seen, so 'rolling' wouldn't quite be the right word for it. Actually, it was hard to say if they were even hills, they looked a bit more like those square pyramid things the Aztecs or the Mayans had built. One of them had a large building on it, which looked a bit like a European castle on it. Battlements sitting on the tops of high walls, and pointed towers poking into the sky. The sky behind it all looked pretty normal, I guess. A blocky black-blue gradient, with a large blocky white moon, framing the distant castle, dotted with a sequence of pixel-like stars—

Pixels. Like Sayuri's Super Famicom games. _That's why it's so familiar. We must be in some weird video game Pure Illusion…_

I heard a sharp hiss behind me, and then a series of beeps that seemed to be low pitched. _Is someone talking? _I turned around again, trying not to feel motion sick from spinning without moving, and turned to see Toto and Nyunyu both looking at me, and a text box below Toto's head, as if he had subtitles.

TOTO: "Breathing gear functional." The beeping stopped, just as text had finished scrolling on the box, and I realised that was supposed to be his 'voice' as he was talking.

YAYAKA: "You sure?" my beeps were in a pitch a little higher than his. Toto nodded, his pixel head seeming to tilt towards me, so a couple of lines of his silver hair were visible for a moment before going back to 'normal'. "Okay, but if you start to feel any worse, go back right away, got it?"

Toto nodded. A second later, Nyunyu's pixel arm rose into the air. NYUNYU: "This is weird!" her 'voice' was a higher pitch than mine, and also a lot faster. The text in her 'subtitles' appeared as quickly, mimicking her way of talking.

YAYAKA: "I can agree with that one, kiddo…" _We might even have to be careful about talking in this world. If it's all text-based, anyone could read what we were saying if their eyes were good enough… _As I thought that, I had a glance around the world again. Hidaka sent us out here for samples… Not that I was intending to return with anything from this world that the team was supposed to hand over, but we should probably at least _look _for something to give back. The only things that were close by were a few stray flowers sticking up from the flat green ground, but as I reached down to touch them, my fingers, like my legs earlier, just sort of 'slotted' into any gaps in the pixels of the plant life. I tried clenching my hand to grab at them, and I felt my 'fingers' connect with each other, but the flowers weren't affected. I wasn't really expecting anything to happen, even then if we brought some pixel-plants back, how would it look when it was in the real world? Would it still be pixels? Would it just be a leaf or a bunch of petals?

Either way, beyond the flowers, there wasn't anything I could see that might possibly be able to be interacted with. Not in this area at least. I tried to take a few steps forward and found I couldn't. I'd say it felt a bit like someone had just melded my feet to the floor, but I tried to lift my arm and go in that direction and it hit an invisible wall. Why my feet couldn't kick into it, I wasn't sure. I tried to turn myself, with my arms out (which probably made me resemble one of Buu's helicopter blades, with how turning in this world seemed to work for me) until I found a place where my hands didn't touch invisible wall, and there were only two directions. _If this is like one of Sayuri's Super Famicom games, I guess that makes sense. You can only move forwards or back in those. _The options we had were heading into some of the square hills, or to make our way to the castle. Well, if Sayuri's games taught me anything, it's to head to the nearest castle.

YAYAKA: "Follow me." I gave the order, as I lead the two of them up there.

I felt a little like there should have been music accompanying us in this world, but the only sounds that really happened was when someone was talking, which mean having to turn to face them, so I could 'read' their subtitles. Nyunyu saw a bug somewhere and asked Toto if she could catch it, which he said 'no' to. In fact, that was pretty much the only conversation that happened. I have no idea where the hell all these 'bugs' Nyunyu kept seeing were, it was pretty dark, and I was pretty sure she didn't mean bugs as in glitches either, as one time when I turned around to look at the pair of them Nyunyu was holding a long rod with a 'shimmering' sort of cone from one end of it, which I thought was a spiked club at first, but then realised, it was a bug net. _Must be a collapsible gadget on one of her forearms… _

We got to the castle and the door sort of flattened and shrunk, becoming one less pixel wide, before becoming a texture that was flat on the brick wall of the castle. I saw a few black squares and rectangles gliding on the flat grey brick walls, which I only would have guessed were insects by Nyunyu passing by me (not quite coming into contact with me, although the only ways we could move were a corridor forwards or backwards, we seemed to be in three separate 'lanes' so we didn't touch) and trying to catch one with her net. Maybe she could see more detail in this world than I could, because that's how Asclepius made her. I wondered if Toto had the same eyesight like she did, but when I looked at him, his visor was up. _How much information on that thing is clear to him in this area? _I activated mine too, to see, oddly, everything was as visually detailed as it should be. The bricks in here were rounded, and some were worn and taken damage, one was cracked... One of the insects Nyunyu was chasing was a beetle, the wings of which were buzzing wildly as it tried to fly away from the eager child (Nyunyu appeared as a 3D form on the visor, not a flat picture like she was in this world otherwise). I clicked my visor back down for a second, to see everything return to flatness. _This is weird…_

A beep came from Toto's direction and I heard his 'voice'. TOTO: "Seven hours air remaining." He sounded fine, but if I looked above his head, I saw a white speech bubble with a blue sweat drop in it. _He's worried…_

I was a little wary of the fact Nyunyu could look over at us and eavesdrop on our conversation, but she seemed pretty occupied in her mission to capture any available insects.

YAYAKA: "Toto, are you sure you're okay?"

Toto's eyes flicked in Nyunyu's direction, likely worried about the same thing I was, but seeing she was busy, he spoke willingly. TOTO: "Said I would come... Seemed to want me around... Why?" Much like his pauses in the real world, the game world replicated his speech, his 'voice' stopping momentarily before continuing like normal.

_He didn't have to come along. He knows he can die, but he saw I needed help. _Some part of me didn't really want to say my plan out loud, as if it would somehow say that I was the reason Cocona and Papika were attacked, but I knew I should tell _someone _at Flip Flap where I was and what I planned to do, and Toto was my best bet.

_Can you whisper in this world? _I wondered. I gave it a try. YAYAKA: ("You know how Cocona and Papika came under attack in Pure Illusion?") Well, to answer that, the text appeared to be a little smaller, and the beeping quieter, but that was it. Whether Toto was the only one who could see it or not, I don't know, but even then with Nyunyu's eyes, she may have been able to see it anyway, like how she knew the pixels in this world were insects.

Toto nodded in reply to my speech. I swallowed, before continuing. YAYAKA: ("I think… It's my fault that happened. I've… been hearing whispers in my head.") I lowered my head, ashamed about what I was saying. ("A darker side of me… It kept offering to take over my body because…") I paused. I knew I could trust Toto, hell I trusted him with my life, but good _gosh _that didn't make it any easier to finally admit, out loud, (well, in writing) and within earshot of someone else ("I'm in love with… Someone I shouldn't be") Okay, I couldn't tell him _who, _exactly, but still, that was really damn hard to say. I felt a little lighter, finally saying something to someone. It was a bit easier to continue and tell him the rest of the story. ("Basically, I tried holding it off and ignoring it, thinking it would go away… and it sorta has. The voice doesn't bother me anymore, but I think… it somehow disconnected from me, and is now a separate being in Pure Illusion. It's attacked two people I care about, and I feel it's going to be relentless, and attack anyone else it comes across… It's my fault it's out here… And I want to deal with it. Alone.")

I was still staring down at the repeating flagstone pattern of the castle floor below me. Toto remained silent, listening… or I hope listening. _I really don't want to have to say that all out loud again… _It was a while before I got a response, which I would have missed the start of if I hadn't looked up the second I heard his 'voice'. TOTO: ("Wanted me in Pure Illusion for easy escape?")

I nodded, feeling even worse. YAYAKA: ("Yeah… I'm sorry. I just thought it was the best way to strand myself in Pure Illusion so I can hunt it down alone. Papika looks like she's scarred for life, and Cocona… I don't know what happened when you guys went to Pure Illusion exactly, but…")

TOTO: ("You're in love with her.")

I felt my face heat up. Even though I was pretty much made of pixels right now, I'm pretty sure if Toto could see my cheeks from this angle that they turned a little pink. I didn't reply directly to that, but he probably knew he was right. YAYAKA: ("My best friends have been attacked by my shadow… I don't want any of the rest of you to get hurt either… I could never forgive myself if that happened…") Also, I didn't really want to face Papika again until that thing was taken down. Every time she saw me, she'd probably think of the attack. _She has to hate me… _And if Cocona learnt that it was my fault Papika was in that condition… ("I'm sorry, Toto. If I could go to Pure Illusion alone to do this, I friggin' would have, but instead I had to drag you along with me and risk your life, just so I could find some excuse to stay behind…")

Toto began to talk, and anything I said after that I said was blocked was blocked by his text box that appeared. TOTO: ("Yayaka… Could sense you needed me… Came with you willingly… Wanted to see Pure Illusion again... Not your fault… Not to blame… Promise.") Above his head a white speech bubble with a smiley face appeared. I looked at it for a while. _He's trying to reassure me… _I found it hard to believe him in my current state, but Toto wouldn't be saying something like that if he didn't mean it. I tried to smile a thank you at him, and a speech bubble with a smiley face appeared above my head. Close enough I guess.

NYUNYU: "AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!" Her text box was large, and slid in past me and Toto, almost acting as a barrier between us.

YAYAKA: "What the crap?!" I turned my attention back to where I last saw Nyunyu, chasing the beetle, and saw she was gone. Hell, she was nowhere in the corridor. _Something happened while we weren't looking._ YAYAKA: "HOLD ON, NYUNYU!" I yelled, mentally cursing myself. _Not the first time my selfish thoughts have hurt someone… Now because I was so focused on talking to Toto and explaining everything I didn't think to keep an eye on her…_

I was running, as fast as I could, deeper into the castle. Flat flaming torches sat in brackets all along the corridor, casting weak halos of yellow light around the area. The 'windows' of the castle that showed the outside world were pressed flat against the wall, showing the starry sky outside, although the colours were starting to shift, a bold purple starting to rise behind the blocky hills. There were doorways strewn all along the building too, but if this was anything like 'Akumajo: Dracula', chances are they were just decoration and couldn't be entered… Okay, I admit I was curious to check it out, being Pure Illusion, there probably _was _more behind them, but that's not important right now. _Nyunyu screamed. She has to be in danger… _I made myself run faster. Toto was close by, but I could hear he was struggling with breathing trying to keep up with me. _Sorry, Toto, I'd slow down, but Nyunyu needs help now. _

It wasn't long until we found ourselves in a huge open room. There was a blob at the opposite end, tucked away, deep in the shadows, that was a little difficult to make out, but going by the silvery-blue colour that shrunk upwards, replaced by a face with orange eyes, it wasn't long before I realised it was Nyunyu. _But what the hell is she doing there?_

YAYAKA: "Nyunyu!" my 'voice' didn't change tone, but my text box shook with urgency, as I called her name and ran towards her. Dumb move on my part.

TOTO: "Yayaka…! Above!" I just about caught sight of Toto's warning and stopped dead in my tracks, my head jerking upwards as I caught sight of the four pairs of glowing eyes on the ceiling, red, blue, green and yellow, all stacked on top of each other. _An enemy… _In an instant, four sets of glistening fangs, shot towards me. I thought I saw a little text box flash up on screen quickly, but I had no idea what the hell it said, as I'd already jumped backwards out of the way. White text hovered in front of me, declaring the enemy's attack as a 'MISS!'

The room slowly lit up, orange pixelated light washing over the grey brick walls, highlighting the shape of the enemy; a four-headed dragon. It was strange to look at, beyond the bugs Nyunyu was chasing earlier, it was the only other life form we'd seen in the world so far, that wasn't Toto or Nyunyu.

Maybe I was so used to being around Toto and Nyunyu that seeing them pressed flat didn't seem strange to me, any details they were normally missing, my head kinda filled in the blanks of, but the dragon? Well, I've seen a few dragons in Pure Illusion in my time, but none that may as well have been a living, moving mosaic. The dragon's necks were all kinda short, and sorta bobbed up and down, along with its body, as if it was taking big heavy breaths. _I really hope it can't breathe fire…_

TOTO: "Yayaka…" I caught sight of him in my peripheral vision, but I had turn to look at him as there were a few lines of statistics above his head: HP: 3000/3000, which was on top of a coloured green bar, MP: 200/200 which was on a blue bar, and just a number 7 hovering below that in the air, which was followed by an empty bar which said 'LIMIT'. _Should the number 7 be on the 'limit bar? Is that a glitch?_ Out of curiosity, I looked above my head and saw a similar set of statistics, although my HP was 5000, and my MP was 100, also I lacked a number '7', but had a LIMIT bar, which puzzled me. _My LIMIT bar is empty too, so maybe that isn't a glitch… but why does Toto have it?_

Turning back to the dragon, I saw it, too, had a set of statistics over its head: HP: 10,000/10,000, MP: 200/200, and another empty LIMIT bar. _What the hell is a 'LIMIT' anyway? _

I was about to let off a barrage of rockets, but I found myself unable to move, apart from looking around. My feet were stuck to the floor, and my arms might as well have been locked in place.

YAYAKA: "I can't move!" I said out loud. Again, nothing in my beeping voice changed, but my text box shook to show my urgency. My heart was starting to pound. _How the crap can we fight this thing if we can't move?! _I tried with sheer force of will to get some part of me, _any _part of me to move. _We're just sitting ducks, it's gonna toast us and we're gonna burn! _My mind flashed back to searing ashes amongst a grey and red world. Skulls charring and skin melting… And also to another scene, where I was trapped in a cage with Papika, being lowered into purple lava. Intense heat rising upwards, pouring, _flooding, _into my body, until I felt like I was boiling, being cooked alive… _No… No, no, no…_ Once again, I was frozen on the spot, with no chance to move, staring a fiery death in the face. I could feel my pixel body shifting rapidly as I began to hyperventilate and panic. _Not again! I can't do this again! I can't burn! I don't want to burn! _I felt like wild animal that had just been trapped: terrified, confused, and _desperate, _for something, _anything, _to save me.

TOTO: "Yayaka!" His arms were out towards me, and a pale green glow shone from his hands. In my panicked mind, I thought for a second that he was doing something to kill me and put me out of my misery, which right then, I would have been pretty happy to welcome, but as the green light touched me, I began to feel cool. My heart began to slow, and my breathing became calmer, easier. Tenseness that'd worked its way into my body was starting to release, and unwind. I closed my eyes for a second and took a deep breath. _Toto's here. He's done something to help me. Nyunyu's here too. She's captured, but she's still here._

_I am not alone._

I opened my eyes again and saw Toto's MP bar had gone down. I wondered what that meant, when the dragon in front of us shifted a little. I tried to jump away again, but nothing happened. Whatever Toto had done, it'd calmed me down, but I still couldn't move.

TOTO: "Not your turn, Yayaka."

YAYAKA: "What are you talking about?" _He knows something about this world… _I had just about enough time to think that when the dragon reared up on its hind legs, and its four heads smashed down on the two of us. I tried to raise my arms, as if that could somehow stop me being swallowed whole by two different heads, but I couldn't move…

I wasn't also in a dragon's gullet right now, which don't get me wrong, I was pretty thankful for, but also very confused about. Until the pain hit me. It felt like how I imagine getting a bowling ball dropped on your back would feel, although by some miracle, my spine wasn't broken, my ribs seemed fine, and I could still stand up. _This doesn't make sense… Pain with no injury? _I looked up at mine and Toto's bars, to see our HP had gone down. _It's a life bar, like in the fighting game at the arcade… _I'd gone down to around 4,000 HP, and Toto around 2,000. _That one attack did that much?! _At this rate, we'd be lucky to survive. _We have to be able to do _something, _we can't die like this!_

I tried again to move, but with no success. _Come on, you stupid game world! _I was about to curse, when I saw a text box appear in front of me with a selection of words: ATTACK. SKILL. STEAL. ITEM. An arrow was hovering next to the 'attack' option. _Toto must have used a skill to try and calm me down, and MP is like the hearts in Akumajo: Dracula, letting you use skills.. He must have played a game like this before. He seems to know more about this than I do…_

I probably should have asked him for help with this, as he seemed to have more of an idea what the hell was going on, but that idea didn't really occur to me at the time. I had a look through my options. ATTACKing would probably be an idea, but I felt that a kick from the boots on my Flip Flap armour wouldn't do too much. _Can I transform here? _I checked the SKILLS section next, hoping I might see something there that said I could, but the only options there were 'Heavy Kick, Wire Whip, Boost Attack, Rocket, Mug'… STEAL made me curious, but I wasn't really sure how that would help right now (actually, now I think about it, aren't Mug and Steal kinda the same thing?) and the last option ITEM revealed a number of things: Flip Flap armour, Amorphous, Rocket belt, Water bottle (those four were greyed out), Visor, Breathing masks (found it odd those two were separate items, when in real life they were connected, but there must have been a reason for that), and also explained where the hell the damn thing was, I can never keep track of it), Yuyu note, Yuyu drawing, Jacket copy, Necklace Copy (I'd guess the C was capitalised on the Necklace Copy because it was a transformation item)… and there were a lot more items listed in the inventory too. Apparently Toto had 559 Hole devices on him, in addition to his Flip Flap armour, Rocket belt, Breathing mask and Visor… the only other items he had on him, were Medical supplies, Noise grenades (that's new… since when did he have those?) and Arcade Keychain… _He took the keychain Ruri gave him along? _That made me smirk, as I found it kinda cute.

But yeah, I had a look through all of my options (neither Toto or the dragon had acted in that time, so maybe that's what Toto meant by it wasn't my turn, this battle is turn-based) and thought for a moment, before my curiosity got the better of me and I picked STEAL so I could figure out what it did.

I wasn't moving myself at all, so being flung forcefully towards the dragon was friggin' scary to say the least, and I could only pray that my theory that this was all turn-based was true, because if it wasn't the dragon could easily have jammed a claw through my skull, and killed me right there. To my relief, that didn't happen, and my arms shot forward automatically, as if I was picking something up from the ground. It felt like I was a puppet and someone was pulling my strings all over, forcing me to do these things. Suddenly, I was pulled backwards through the air, and I felt something heavy in my left hand and a text box appeared.

STEAL: Success! Obtained Nyunyu!

_Wait, what?_ Looking down at my hand, did indeed, reveal I was holding the orange-eyed girl under my arm. For the first time, I think I saw her blink as she looked up at me.

And then she disappeared.

YAYAKA: "What?" I've said and thought that word so much this world that it was starting to sound like it wasn't even a real word any more. I went to look at Toto, to ask if he knew anything, only to see Nyunyu standing next to him. He'd taken something from one of the items on her forearms and threw it at the dragon, a thin rod that burst open in a flash of light. _Some kind of grenade? Or a flare? _I felt like it should have blinded me, but oddly it didn't and Toto and Nyunyu seemed fine too.

The dragon however only seemed to have one pair of eyes now, although it still had four heads. The yellow, blue, and red eyed heads had flat black clouds hovering in front of their eyes. _The item must've done that. _

Now Toto's turn was over, it was the dragon's turn to attack again. It took a deep breath, which appeared to have pretty good suction power, as I could feel my pixel hair move towards it as it inhaled. _But if it's breathing in that means…_

Splotches of orange and yellow erupted from every mouth on the dragon. _Fire! _I wanted to duck down or hide behind something to take cover, I could _feel _my body _trying _to move, but I might as well have been trying to fight against a mould that I fit perfectly into. Nothing I attempted resulted in a movement. I just had to stand there and take the hit… _Stand there and burn…_

So I was really damn confused when I _felt _the fire's heat, but there wasn't any pain at all. 'MISS!' 'MISS!' 'MISS!' '-400' Okay, at that last one, it felt a little like my hands were burning, as if I'd gripped something made of metal that was red-hot, but compared to what I was expecting, I was completely fine with that. Then a text box popped up 'YAYAKA's fire resistance has returned to normal!' which worried me a little. _Toto must've cast a spell or something on me earlier to help resist the attack. If it hurt me that much _with _a fire resistance boost, and Toto has less HP than me… _I looked at him. Sure enough, he was down to about 1,300, dangerously close to a third of his life bar. His limit bar had filled up quite a bit though, to around half, whereas mine was around a quarter… But that number 7 I mentioned earlier seemed to have gone down, to 6, which concerned me. I still wasn't sure what it was, but it definitely wasn't good… _What's that sound? _There wasn't any music or anything, but there was definitely something rhythmic in the air…

It took a second to realise it was coming from Toto. His breathing. The whole time in the world I've not heard him like that, and to hear him like that now, as if he was starting to struggle…

YAYAKA: "Toto, are you okay?" It was a second before he replied.

TOTO: "Am fine… For a while…" _'For a while?' _Once again, I got suspicious of that lone number hovering above his head…

I waited for the text box to appear in front of me as the dragon had just taken its turn, but it never did. Wondering what the hell was going on, I turned and saw Nyunyu, like Toto and I, now had a set of stats above her head too. Looks like we have another fighter… And going by the fact the dragon was still at full health, we'd probably friggin' need her.

Nyunyu stared at the dragon for a while, and I wondered if she knew what was happening exactly, or if she knew what she had to do. I was about to explain when a text box appeared:

NYUNYU: "Do either of nyu have a sword or a lance?"

It was hard not to voice my confusion. YAYAKA: "What would you need one of those for?"

NYUNYU: "The books in Hidaka's lab said that dragons are always killed with a sword or a lance!"

Apparently Toto was just as confused as me.

TOTO: "No dragons in Hidaka's books…"

…But his comment hit me, and I suddenly worked out what Nyunyu meant. _Hidaka's _books didn't have dragons in them… but the old ones Cocona gave _me_, that were in his lab, did_. _I made a mental note of the fact that in addition to bugs and weaponry, she seemed to like storybooks, and I remembered that I wanted to find a way to thank her for saying the word 'trade' which persuaded Hidaka to let me stay at Flip Flap.

YAYAKA: "Hey, Nyunyu, those books you read were mine. I don't read them anymore, but if you like them, you can keep them." That gave me another thought. "If you like stories, Nyunyu, ask Cocona to tell you some. She has some really good ones."

NYUNYU: "Okay!" It seemed like the sort of moment she would have raised her hand in the air, if she presumably wasn't frozen in place. Well, I say that, she wasn't frozen for long, as she finally made her move. She drew one of the tools on her forearms, which extended into… a harpoon? _Now that's an odd choice… _But if this world worked with what Nyunyu said, needing a lance or a sword to kill the dragon, it may well have been our only chance of winning the battle. I was expecting her to throw it, but instead she raised it in the air, and a circle of light spread out on the ground beneath her, creating a wall of light. A text box explained what the heck just happened.

NYUNYU casts BARRIER! Party defences increased!

That… wasn't what I was expecting at all. Heck, is it bad that this time I was actually disappointed she didn't have a gun on her? _But at the rate me and Toto have been taking damage, she might be on to something… _I thought about the dust world again. Maybe it was a thing Asclepius programmed into her, to pull up a barrier in the risk of an attack that could take everyone out. Not the worst idea in the world …

…But it wasn't helping us kill the dragon. The text box with the four options appeared in front of me again, as I looked at our four-headed opponent. Its 10,000 HP bar was still full, although its MP had gone down a little after the fire breath attack. _There's no option to run, and I doubt this thing will let us live… We need to take it down, and fast._

I had another look through all of my available options. Although I'd rescued Nyunyu, and that had given us another fighter in our team, the dragon wasn't going to go down any time soon if we carried on like this. _Damage. We need to start dealing damage. _I had a flick through my skills again, wishing I had more information on them. By the sounds of it, most of my skills sounded like single-target attacks. _Is the dragon a single target? _It was possible, but when Toto used the item earlier he'd managed to blind three of the four heads… Just in case, I ruled out Heavy Kick. Wire Whip might hit more than one head, but realistically it didn't look like it'd help too much in this situation. _But if this is a game, and it's like 'Akumajo: Dracula'…_ _I mean, the whip in that seemed pretty effective at taking out monsters. _

YAYAKA used Wire Whip!

My body automatically moved as I pulled out a length of grappling wire from my weapon belt, and swung it in a circle a couple of times, before lashing out. According to this world, it was just a single-pixel-wide line, but I knew if I put my visor back up, I'd see the sharp barbed hooks at the end. The action was over in around two seconds, and if I could move, I probably would have winced, because as I pictured the hooked end striking someone, catching, and then being yanked back, with that force, that quickly, it would _really _friggin' hurt.

The dragon didn't seem to agree, and I felt disheartened when its HP went from 10,000 to 9,900. _How the crap are we going to beat this thing?! _

Toto's turn came around. I kept my attention on him as he acted, and watched as his blue MP bar dropped and he launched a bunch of rockets. I didn't see how much damage he did, because I was too busy watching as the 6 dropped down to a 5. I swear Toto's breathing got a little heavier at that point.

'_Am fine… For a while…' _I felt a jolt of fear as I made the connection. _He has five turns left before he runs out of air… _How his hours-long air supply translated into turns remaining in a game, I don't know, but the situation we were in terrified me a lot more than it did one turn ago. _If we don't kill this thing in four or five turns… _

_But maybe we didn't need to kill it._

YAYAKA: "Toto! Use a Hole device on your next turn! Get out of here!" Again, the only hint of what I was feeling was the fact my text box shook.

As far as I was concerned, my turn couldn't arrive fast enough. For now though, it was the dragon's turn. The ground shook as it spoke.

DRAGON: "You are trespassing… Pay the price!"

It rose and stomped on the stone floor, causing large spikes to thrust upwards and stab at our feet. The three of us were launched into the air with the sheer force of the attack and we all landed flat on our stomachs. I felt like I'd just belly flopped into a swimming pool from high up, and the wind was knocked out of me. As I wheezed for breath, a white number, representing the damage we took, knocked my HP down to about half, and Toto below a third, and our LIMIT bars filled with red a little more. A text box appeared in the air.

YAYAKA and TOTO are Silenced!

I felt a wave of dread upon reading that and looked back over at Toto. His turn timer had gone down from '5' to '3', and his breaths were a lot louder than they were a few seconds ago. _That took him down another two turns?! Did it damage his equipment or something?! _I wanted to talk, order him again to get out of here, but the only thing that happened was another text box reminding me I was Silenced. _I can't even call his name!_

NYUNYU: "Toto-onii-chan!" Nyunyu had taken damage from the attack, and was down to around three quarters of her health. She didn't hesitate at all on this turn, taking action immediately. I saw her throw something at Toto, which just looked like a white blob to me, and I was desperately hoping it was a Hole and she was getting him out of there, and I stood there waiting for a black portal to show up. It didn't. Instead, a green pool of light washed over Toto as his HP rose to about 2,000, so he was back to two thirds of his life. _She must have used one of the medical supplies_. I would have growled in annoyance, but I guess at least Nyunyu was paying attention, and made it so that he'd be likely to take a hit next turn if he needed to. _But there shouldn't be a next turn for him, he needs to get out of here now!_

My four options appeared in front of me, and I went straight to the ITEM menu and hovered over the 559 Hole devices, and tried to select one…

Nothing happened. If I could have, I would have grit my teeth or something, but I couldn't move at all. Annoyingly, I understood exactly why it didn't work. _I still haven't learnt how to use one… _I cursed myself. _Five hundred and fifty nine ways home, and I can't use a single one of them to save him…_

I was getting more pissed off by the second, closed the items menu, and went to my skills and tried to select one of them.

YAYAKA is Silenced and can't use SKILLS!

_Oh for frags sake! FINE! _This dragon needed to be taken down, and the last time I used STEAL it did no damage. My only option was a plain attack. _This had better deal a lot of damage…_

I should have expected being pulled into the air and towards the dragon after the first time I came into close contact with it, but it caught me off guard, and made me feel a little sick, as I was quickly jerked forward, as it someone had tied a string around my waist and just sharply yanked me to the enemy, with one leg shooting out in a kick. I was then forced backwards, moving in the exact same leaping arc, to my original position, and saw the word 'CRITICAL!' followed by a nice, high number, which took the dragon to around 7,000 HP. If I could have smirked, I would have. _That's more like it! _But then I became worried again a second later. _Toto's turn now. _I tried to yell at him again.

YAYAKA is Silenced!

_Damn it! _The most I could do was look in his direction… _No… maybe there was more… _I tried to reach out for him, with the bond we had. I knew our connection was weak, but maybe I could send him a message… _Use a Hole! I'll get Nyunyu back to you somehow! Just get out of here, Toto, or you're gonna die!_

If my face showed any expression, I guarantee you I would have been staring so hard it would have looked like I was trying to shoot lasers from my eyes.

Toto's red pixel eyes flicked in my direction. _Can he understand me? _I saw him raise a flat arm up, like Nyunyu did when she used an item. _That's it! _

And then a green pool of light shone over me. I looked up to see my HP had gone back up… And Toto's '3' had gone down to '2'.

YAYAKA and TOTO are no longer Silenced! _Finally!_

YAYAKA: "You idiot! Why did you do that?! Why didn't you go home?!" I was surprised that my text wasn't in all capital letters to try and get across the fact I wanted to shout the whole room down. I wasn't ungrateful that he healed me, but still, he's on the _brink of death, _and he's not heading back when he promised he would.

If Toto had any emotion to his response either, it wasn't expressed. In fact, he only said three words.

TOTO: "You are injured."

His breathing was even heavier now than it was before, seriously struggling. He must've been winded like I was by the dragon's attack, but clearly it affected him more than he was willing to admit.

I was so busy focusing on him, I didn't realise the dragon had attacked again, until I felt its flat, heavy tail crash into my body, as if I'd just been hit by a truck, and all of us were knocked, flat to the ground.

NYUNYU is Stunned!

I looked over at her, to see she yellow lightning bolts flashing either side of her, and her body was twitching. I wondered how much of that was her being Stunned, and how much of that was pain, because looking up, her life bar was getting dangerously low…

_They both need to get out of here. Fast._

Nyunyu being Stunned must have skipped her turn, as the four options appeared in front of me right after the dragon had finished its attack, and I suddenly remembered something. _Hidaka sent us here for another damn sample from Pure Illusion… _A part of me wondered if that's why Toto was hesitant to leave, because we hadn't fulfilled our mission. That might not be the reason at all, but if it got him back home faster, then fine, I'll take care of that right now.

I went into my skills and chose 'Mug' to see what the difference between that and my regular 'STEAL' option was. My answer was, basically a mix of ATTACK and STEAL, I did some damage, and managed to kick one of the dragon's teeth right out of its head.

Obtained: Dragon fang!

I tossed it in Toto's direction, keeping an eye on the dragon, watching as its HP sunk to 6,500.

YAYAKA: "There! You have a sample you can go back to Hidaka with, now stop being stubborn, Toto, take Nyunyu and get out of here!"

There was no response.

And I couldn't hear him breathing any more.

_Shit, I can't be too late!_

I turned to him, panicked, desperately hoping he was still okay and saw… he was perfectly fine. His countdown was still at 2, but… he was glowing. He hadn't used an item though, as far as I could see, but he had a glowing white aura around him. I wondered what was going on, when I saw his red LIMIT bar was full.

YAYAKA: "…Toto?" _Please tell me he's still alive and that I can't hear him breathing is because of some effect of this world, and not because he's just a floating corpse or something, and the light around him isn't some angelic force taking him away._

He was kneeling next to Nyunyu, one hand on the girl's back. In his other hand rested a green pixel, an item of some sort, but I couldn't work out what it was. Not until he spoke at least.

TOTO: "Ruri-chan…"

_The keychain from the arcade… The 'Arcade Keychain'. It was capitalised in the menu, just like my Necklace Copy… _

That's when I recognised the kind of light around him, and realised why he had his hand on Nyunyu, a human made from amorphous...

TOTO: "FLIP… FLAPPING!"

_He's transforming! _

Unlike the flare from earlier, this light _did _blind me. The most I could do was close my eyes to defend myself from it, as my arms still refused to move. Even then it was still bright to the point of I'd be surprised if I had eyes when it had gone. When the light faded, I opened my eyes a crack (thankfully the light didn't destroy them), to see Toto hovering in the air. His feet weren't touching the ground, but he was in a combat stance that clearly said he was happy to punch the life out of anything that pissed him off. His transformation gear was a little hard to make out, what with everything in this world being a 2D pixel sprite, but at a guess, it looked like he was wearing some kind of martial arts gi. His silver hair looked like it was alive with ghostly white flames… Actually, now I think about it, he looked a bit like the martial artist character in the arcade game he and Yuyu played as, when they fought against the dragon guy.

His transformation came with a weapon too, like Cocona's and Papika's, although rather than being a giant sword, or twin energy guns, Toto's looked more like a sniper rifle, which made me think of the guns the old Asclepius soldiers used to have. Of course, like everything else, it was pixelated, but that didn't hinder Toto's next attack in the slightest.

TOTO: "Pure… Blank!" Unlike every other time in the world, that line wasn't accompanied by beeps, those two words were actually spoken with Toto's real voice, louder than I've ever heard him before. But that was nothing compared to the gunshot that erupted from the end of his weapon's barrel. I thought the dragon's breath was terrifying, but it was _nothing _compared to Toto's attack.

Along with a burst of grey, shifting smoke, a white-blue beam shot from the end of his weapon, in an attack that looked like it could easily have sliced the dragon in half. Heck, if this was real-life combat, I'd guarantee you, exactly that would have happened, or at least it'd have a hole melted straight through its body.

After Toto's attack, his LIMIT bar emptied completely, and his transformation faded.

I was happy to see that his attack had done as much damage as it looked like it should have caused… well almost. The dragon was down to around 500 HP now, and could probably be finished in a single attack…

Unfortunately, it was the dragon's turn now.

And it wanted revenge.

Once again, it inhaled deeply, before using all four of its heads in a focused attack on Toto. Two of the attacks came up with 'MISS!', as the dragon was still affected by Toto's attempt to blind it before, but the remaining two hits did enough to bring Toto back down to 100HP. He was already panting heavily from the minute he hit the ground, with the '2' turning to a '1', but the dragon's attack was too much, and now he was forced to kneel, with his hand clutching at the scar on his forehead.

It would have been Nyunyu's turn, but she was still Stunned, so the option box appeared in front of me instead of her. Before I took my turn though, I had to speak to Toto.

YAYAKA: "Toto… I can't use a Hole device on you, and you promised me you'd head back to Flip Flap if you felt yourself becoming worse…" I was thankful my voice was a series of monotone beeps at that moment, because I knew if I spoke, my voice would be cracking, and I'd be on the verge of tears. "You came here because you knew I needed help, and you know that I wanted you guys to leave so I could stay here, and deal with the shadow…" My throat was getting tight and it was getting hard to talk. "I don't know why you've stayed so long, but please… go back home with Nyunyu… I don't want you guys to die!"

I hovered over the 'Medical supplies' in the item menu, ready to use them on Nyunyu, before I spoke to Toto again.

YAYAKA: "Please, Toto. Go back to Flip Flap with Nyunyu."

I might have been able to take the dragon out that turn, but I didn't want to risk it. If I attacked, and it missed or didn't do enough damage, Toto might have tried to finish it off for me that turn instead of going back with Nyunyu, and risk his countdown hitting zero. I wasn't sure if that'd mean instant death or not, but I didn't want to find out. For that same reason, I didn't want to use the Medical supplies on him, even though he was on lower HP than Nyunyu and would logically need it most: It would be another reason to force him to retreat.

I took a deep breath as I used the healing item on Nyunyu. I wasn't really sure how the pixel bandages got from Toto's Flip Flap armour to my hand, they just sorta teleported there, but if it helped Nyunyu, I was fine with that. Nyunyu's HP went back up a fair portion and a textbox appeared.

NYUNYU is no longer Stunned!

_Good. _

Toto acted immediately, and I barely had a moment to _pray _he would go back home. He was holding a white pixel in his hands, which scared me for a second, that he was going to use a healing item on me, but he slammed it straight down at the floor and a large black Hole opened beneath him and Nyunyu.

Toto grabbed hold of the blue-silver haired girl and pulled her down with him. Toto's eyes caught mine for a second as he gave me one final message.

TOTO: "Good… luck…"

Apparently Nyunyu had one for me too.

NYUNYU: "Yayaka-" was about all I could make out before her subtitles disappeared into the Hole. Something shot upwards out of it though, heading in my general direction. Maybe the Hole being activated stopped the world's 'frozen pose' combat thing, as I was able to reach for it. My pixel-hands slotted around a weapon, specifically, the harpoon Nyunyu was using earlier. I would've called a thank you, but the Hole was gone by the time I caught the weapon. _I hope they make it back to Flip Flap okay… _

I turned my attention back to the dragon, which was preparing its next attack, holding the harpoon, ready to use on my next turn.

YAYAKA: "Bring it on, big guy."

* * *

_Authors note: Sorry if this chapter ends sorta suddenly, I felt that was a good time to cut it off, as I felt the JRPG section was getting a little long, even though I could have squeezed another few rounds in, but the chapter is around 12k words, and I figure that's kinda enough._

_I was originally going to have the team fight against a spider, and have Nyunyu run off because she wanted to catch it, but then I had a thought: There's actually quite a few spider monsters in Flip Flappers (Episodes 3, 6 and 12, so spider monsters appear in almost a quarter of every episode in the series), so I thought I'd go for something different. Part of me still wishes I'd gone for the spider now, because it'd link in with the rest of the series somehow._

_I originally had a different idea for the Pixel World, but then I thought up the whole JRPG/Final Fantasy sort of thing, and I thought it was too good an opportunity to miss. Thankfully the other idea I have can work in almost any other Pure Illusion world, so I can hopefully fit that in later._


	12. Chapter 11

_Yuyu_

Wanted to check on Yayaka as soon as possible. Couldn't because Hidaka wanted to work on new arm. Was suspicious after I wanted to leave quickly previously. Annoying.

"If you're going to Pure Illusion again, we need your arm in perfect working condition," Hidaka said as he worked. Could understand reasoning. Flip Flap armour sleeve was currently pulled up. Hidaka stood over metal arm with tools. "Now, move your fingers for me."

Did as requested. Lag between thought and action. Little finger seemed slower to move than others.

"We need to fix that…" He mumbled.

Work continued momentarily. Sparks flew. Tools poked at arm. No false nerves in arm. Can't feel. Thankful. Tools look painful. Hidaka asked me to move fingers again. Obeyed. Still a delay, but quicker to react. An improvement.

Eventually, Papika and Cocona entered the room.

"Excuse me, Hidaka-san. I know you're busy, but... can we ask you something?" Cocona spoke. Sounded hesitant. Was expecting Papika to blurt out request. Didn't. Looked at her. Blue eyes appeared haunted. Was staring blankly at floor, holding Cocona's hand. Barely seemed responsive. Became worried. Unusual behaviour for Papika.

"What's up?" Hidaka asked.

"Well, um…" Cocona seemed hesitant to talk. Looked at Papika. Became determined and spoke again. "We'd like a set of armour made for us, please, if that's okay."

"You guys want armour, too?" Hidaka raised his eyebrows. "How come? I thought you both would have been fine as you can both transform."

"We can't do that if we're not together," Cocona said. "The last time both of us were in Pure Illusion, we weren't with each other, and both of those times… we came under attack." Cocona explained. Looked at Papika, as if waiting for a response. Received none. "Papika went to see Mimi in a safe world, but something attacked her, and when I went to Pure Illusion with Toto, Yuyu, and Nyunyu, I also ended up seperated from the members of my team, and..."

Felt anger as she said that. Stared down at metal arm. _Reason Cocona was lost. _Assume grip failed. Or thoughts not connected. Would have been weak on my side. _Shouldn't have happened. Should have been fine. My fault… _Dislike arm. _Hate _arm. _Should be normal arm. Should be normal human. Would be no trouble then…_

"Will make armour." I said suddenly. Seemed to startle Cocona and Hidaka. "Have material left over from previous armour creation. Will get to work." Left the room to find required equipment. Sooner I get to work, sooner I have a distraction from thoughts.

* * *

Toto and Nyunyu created armour for ex-Asclepius team. Was on my own in creation of armour for Papika and Cocona… But was fine with that. Had a purpose. Looked at new arm and picked up fabric. Reactions still slow, but reliable enough for work. _Useful. _Small smile pulled at mouth.

Like at Pure Illusion school, found sewing satisfying. Found spare uniforms of Cocona's and Papika's for size refrence. Didn't need to measure anything. Just copied from old clothing. Checked alongside. Replication of sizes accurate. Needle pressed through compact fabric of armour. Pierced. Thread followed through. Trail of colour. Created small arches along sides, pulling needle through and around, through and around… Different to emboirdery. But still satisfying. As progress was made, had to go over some places. Was accurate, but not perfect. Weak points. Lots of weak points…

Eventually, ran out of armour fabric. Armour incomplete. Frowned. Organs and important body parts would be protected… Most of armour for torso and some for upper legs complete, but other parts exposed. _Synchronisation best for travel to Pure Illusion… _Thought about Cocona and Papika's initial appearances in Pure Illusion. _Both wore school uniforms. Same uniforms… _Likely that helped them… _When went to Pure Illusion with Toto, Nyunyu and Cocona, were all in armour, minus Cocona… School uniform… _Possible that was another interference of Pure Illusion travel, resulting in separation from group. _Should replicate armour as close as possible… But how…?_

Looked over at spare school uniforms again. White shirt. Blue skirt. Pink-red sailor scarf… Same as Yayaka's…

Thought about Yayaka's jacket, taken from Asclepius' base. Kept in weapon belt pocket. Put it in there before going to art room. Wanted to wear it, but didn't want paint on it. Pulled it out now. Slightly frayed with age. Dark blue cloth would match Cocona and Papika's armour better to Flip Flap armour…

But looking at it… Didn't want to salvage for parts. Didn't want to destroy… "Yayaka…" Said her name out loud. Will keep jacket safe for her. _Hope Yayaka, Toto and Nyunyu are safe in Pure Illusion. _Began to worry again. Not heard from them. Been working on armour for a while. Should be back soon…

Small frown. Put Yayaka's jacket back in pocket. Got scissors and cut old spare uniforms of Cocona's and Papika's… Cut into sections. Filled in gaps in torso armour. Couldn't make pockets, or padding, like other armour. Not enough material, but coverage sufficient. In attempt to replicate stripes on Asclepius' team armour, used skirt and sailor scarf. Cocona's colour, blue. Papika's, pink-red.

Suddenly… "Hidaka-sama! We're back!"

_Nyunyu's voice. _Heart leapt. _Returned from Pure Illusion! _Wanted to see Toto, Yayaka and Nyunyu… but became concerned. _Yayaka or Toto would announce presence… Instead Nyunyu did… Something went wrong? _ about Toto's breathing difficulty. Spike of dread.

Left Cocona and Papika armour abandoned. Had to see Toto. Need to know he's okay…

* * *

Went to medical room. Found Hidaka, Cocona, Nyunyu, Papika at least. All crowded around a bed with—

"Toto!" Called his name and rushed over. Cocona stepped aside, gently pulling Papika with her, to make room for me. Was terrified of what I'd find… But Toto appeared fine. Breathing sounded mostly normal. Maybe heavy… Hard to remember what normal for Toto sounded like. He was awake. Smile twitched at his mouth when he saw me.

"Yuyu…" his voice sounded weak. Began to worry again. My mouth pulled into small wince. Was almost painful to hear him speak. Can only imagine how he felt speaking.

"What's wrong with him?" I asked. Hidaka answered.

"Well…" He scratched the back of his head. "I'm not sure… But it appears Pure Illusion has been affecting him more than we initially thought. Something about being back there… I examined his chest, and parts of his lungs seemed to resemble crystal more than normal body tissue… It's as if he's turning back into amorphous, from the inside."

'_Turning back into amorphous'_… Thought terrified me. Took a step backwards. Hand went to chest. Ended up touching amorphous necklace. Looked down at it. Soft orange light reflected in surface. _Has kept me warm… _Thought of cold hand and feet in Pure Illusion._ Has it kept me safe? _

Inspected arms. Robotic one was fine. To be expected. Other hand also appeared fine. Feet would have been difficult to check right then. Will check later. _Am sure amorphous has kept me safe. Continue to keep me safe._

"Can anything be done to help him?" I asked.

Waited for a reply. Thought I wouldn't get one. Eventually, "I don't know…" Hidaka said. "Mimi's the one who took the amorphous' power away—"

Suddenly remembered. "Yayaka wondered if Mimi could give power back…" Turned to Papika. "Did Yayaka ask?"

Papika shook her head. Got annoyed… But then realised. Yayaka not in the room.

"Where is Yayaka?" I asked.

"Pure… Illusion…" Toto answered. Looked at him. Chest rising and falling more noticeable than before. Voice still weak. "Said she'd… Follow…"

'_Said she'd follow'_ Is that possible? Unknown. "Does she know how to use a Hole device?"

Toto blinked. Looked at ceiling. Avoiding eye contact.

Didn't like his reaction. Grew concerned. "I didn't teach her. Did you or Nyunyu?"

"Nope!" Nyunyu answered, hand raised in air. Waited for answer from Toto.

"…No" he said. Turned his head to look at wall. Couldn't face anyone.

"…She's stuck," I said. Clenched hands tightly. "Alone…"

Turned around and immediately left the room. _Yayaka alone in Pure Illusion. Can't get back… Said to Toto she'd follow… A plan? Or an accident? Trapped, or stayed willingly?_

Questions. No answers.

Sudden important thought.

_Didn't include food for her armour. If in Pure Illusion, trapped or by choice, alone, without food…_

Began to run.

Yayaka often forgot to eat. Asclepius gave her rations, but she disliked them. Didn't want to eat them. Ate around Cocona's house, and at school, but at Asclepius? Hardly saw her eat. Toto and I had to remind her. Always packed food for her. Only Asclepius rations, but still, requirement for Yayaka. Experienced as she is in Pure Illusion, experience doesn't give immunity to hunger. Should have her water bottle… Always kept it in pockets, but food? Unlikely.

Need to get to her.

Need to give her food…

Thought I heard a voice behind me. Didn't turn or look.

Was running. Running to Asclepius' portal room.

* * *

Toto said Yayaka gave orders not to destroy portal. Was unsure about decision, but obeyed Yayaka's order. Now feel differently about decision. Am thankful. Can get to Yayaka quickly. _Will need to be quick. Could have been in there for days already._

Boots brushed white clovers from Mimi's attack. Light rustling as ran past. White walls were dusty. Some places stained a different colour. Rooms were empty. Computers destroyed…

Found the portal room.

Coated in clovers… but otherwise, intact. Computer next to it was still on. Ran towards it and entered Yayaka's tracker data. Was able to find amorphous by following Cocona's tracker data. Location in world not exact, but enough to find general area…

_Food. _Came away from computer. _Whole reason I came here because Yayaka needs food. _Tried to remember where Asclepius stored rations. Memory was fuzzy. After able to follow Cocona, time spent in Pure Illusion searching for amorphous has been much shorter. Not needed to pack food for Yayaka in a long time.

Footsteps echoed in corridors, which appeared bigger than they used to be. Unusual to see Asclepius facility devoid of people. Didn't bother me at first. Were just scientists. Just automatic in their actions. Normally dismissed them, as if not there… but now… really was no one here… _This was home… And home is empty… _

Passed by one room with door ajar. Large room. Contained white walls, white clovers... and white instruments. A double bass... and a piano. My head tilted to the side. Was aware of room's existance previously, but not been here in a long time. Having returned, mind had one thought.

_Have two functioning arms._

Stepped into the room and approached the piano. Felt ivory keys beneath fingers of real hand. Smooth... Lifted metal arm and slowly hovered over keys. Pressed one. Note echoed loudly in the room. I smiled. _Can play._

"Yuyu? Are you here?" A voice! Familiar… Startled. Scared. Unsure how to react.

"Yuyu?" Called again. Worked out who it was that time. _Cocona. Friendly voice. _Heart was pounding from surprise appearance. Got up and called her name in reply. "Cocona-onee-chan?"

"Yuyu!" Cocona's voice became alert. Heard distant footsteps as she moved towards me. I left the music room, and closed the door behind me. Met her.

"Yuyu! Why did you run away from Flip Flap?" She asked.

"Yayaka alone in Pure Illusion. Forgot to include food for her equipment." Found myself talking quickly. Urgently. Felt panicked. Then got annoyed at self. _Wanted to play Piano, when should have been working to help Yayaka... _Likely my emotions didn't show on face, but may have come across in voice "Need to get to Yayaka. Could be trapped. Forgets to eat. Needs—"

Cocona put her hands on my shoulders. Stared into my eyes.

"Slow down, Yuyu," She said, calmingly. "She's not trapped."

"Not trapped?" Blinked "How do you know?" Still felt worried, but more relaxed at Cocona's statement. She took a hand away from my shoulder. Took a note from her skirt pocket. Handed it to me. I read it.

'_There's something I have to deal with. Don't worry about me, you softies, I'll be fine. Thank you for being my friends –Yayaka'_

Said her name out loud as I read her signature on the note. Could only stare after.

"I found that not too long after you left. She was planning to stay in Pure Illusion." Cocona said.

"Why?" I asked. Turned note over. Blank. No explanation.

"I'm not sure…" Cocona said. "But it has to be something important, she wouldn't call anyone a softie otherwise."

Tilted head to the side, confused. Cocona explained: "It tends to be her way of saying 'I love you'."

Heart skipped a beat. Stared at note again. _Saying she loves us… But saying goodbye… Doesn't have food…_

_Idiot. _Hand clenched tightly around note, initially cursing Yayaka… Eventually cursing myself. _Should have remembered everything… Couldn't remember everything… Defective…_ "Need to get to Yayaka." Spoke. Voice seemed tight. But was determined now. "Shouldn't be alone in Pure Illusion."

"Yuyu—" Cocona began. Interrupted her.

"Shut up. Longer time spent here, longer time Yayaka is in Pure Illusion. Time is different. Need to get to her now, before she starves... Will go alone if I have to!" Put my hand over my heart. Voice became louder. More forceful. "I need to find her! I want to protect her! Want to play at arcade again with her! Want to be with her…"

Was looking at the floor. Eyes felt… Full. Vision was blurry. Blinked tears away.

Cocona moved her hands to my face. Wiped tears away with a gentle touch.

"Yuyu…" Her voice was soft. A whisper. "I'm worried about Yayaka, too, and I don't want to starve either. I'll come to Pure Illusion with you, so you can get there safely and don't get hurt trying to go alone... I want to help her too, if I can, but I promised Papika, that I'll be with her again soon, so I can't stay for very long. When we find Yayaka, I'll go back to Earth, and see if I can get the others to help her too, when they're feeling better. Until then, Yuyu... please, take good care of Yayaka."

"Cocona_…_ Thank you…"

* * *

Ran around Asclepius' base trying to remember where rations were kept. Eventually found a storage cupboard. Small pile of them inside. Began to fill pockets of weapon belt. Cocona grabbed some too.

"I might not be staying for very long, but I don't know how long the two of you will be in there, and how much Yayaka will need…" She paused. "You seem determined to food for her, but not yourself. Don't you need any?"

"Don't need to eat. Asclepius removed that requirement from Toto, Nyunyu and I."

"Then why did you come with us to the Café that day?"

"Wanted to get away from bug hunt. Dislike insects."

Weapon belt pockets were full. I stepped away from the cupboard and went to the portal room. Cocona followed, ration bars in her arms. Conversation continued as we walked, Cocona asking questions.

"Are you sure there wasn't another reason why you came along?"

"Why do you ask?" Replied with one myself.

"Well…" Seemed hesitant to talk. "It's the way you spoke about Yayaka earlier."

Felt… strange. Embarrassed. Remembered time I said to Yayaka that I thought Cocona and Papika were adorable together. Began to feel uncomfortable. "Was it weird?"

"I wouldn't say weird," a tiny smile formed on her face. "I just want my sister to be happy."

Unusual statement. Don't understand why she was saying that, but her words… Made me feel warm.

Rest of journey spent in silence. Arrived at portal room after a few minutes. Double checked coordinate input. Was about to activate portal when had a sudden thought. Took some Hole devices out of weapon belt. Held them out for Cocona to take. She removed all but one from my hand.

"Watch carefully," I said. Twisted tiny metal bands on capsule, series of small numbers on side changing. Set coordinates for Asclepius' base on Earth. Asked her to copy what I did on all capsules in her possession. Action repeated successfully each time. Asked her to give some back to me. Changed coordinates completely, out of sight of her, before returning them. Told her to change back to Asclepius coordinates and show me when done. Seconds later, was presented with five Hole devices with correct settings. Nodded, approving. "Coordinates given will take you to Asclepius' base. To return, press rounded ends of device in, and throw at surface. Will disappear upon use. Check coordinates are correct before use. Ended up in wrong locations because numbers on bands slip sometimes…" Pause. "Normally need amorphous to work, but as child of Mimi, should be able to create own power to get home. If that doesn't work, use me or necklace for power."

Cocona looked at amorphous necklace I was wearing. Took the orange shard in one hand. Was looking at it, turning it over in fingers. "I gave this necklace to Yayaka because I thought it would protect her, but I hardly ever saw her wear it…"

Thought about Yayaka's rock and leaf form Pure Illusion. "Yayaka could have left it behind, but didn't. Had other objects she wanted to keep. Important to her. Likely kept in a safe place, not wanting Asclepius to take it."

"But they found it anyway and created Nyunyu…"

I looked away. Mouth pulled in slight wince. "My fault. Discovered replica object in Pure Illusion with Toto. Wondered if it was there in real world… Remember feeling a pull whenever walking past Yayaka's room at Asclepius. Was forbidden to go in there… but Asclepius wanted amorphous. Thought if gave it to them, might keep Yayaka safe. Might give her another chance with Asclepius, as they began to question her loyalty… But thinking about it…" felt guilty. "…may have unintentionally put Yayaka in danger. Would have kept her alive as only person who could go to Pure Illusion at Asclepius' base, but giving them necklace resulted in creation of Nyunyu… Someone who was compatible with Toto and I, meaning Yayaka no longer needed. Was given necklace afterwards, to place back in book. 'Not a shard of Mimi's', so they didn't care."

"So… how did I make that in the first place?"

"Unknown. Only you would know, but possibility of amnesia from contact with Pure Illusion. Asclepius recorded side effect of being in Pure Illusion: Memory loss…" Stopped talking. Saw rations Cocona had left on the floor while showing her Hole device commands. Got angry at myself for distraction. "Need to get to Yayaka."

Began to get portal ready. Wasn't long before it came to life. A sheet of white light inside black metal frame. Faint crackle of energy and hum of machinery. Saw Cocona looking at the portal. Arms around her middle, holding some ration bars, body tensed. Appeared terrified.

"Is safe." Attempted to reassure her, "Have always travelled like this."

"…Are you sure?"

"Am sure. Set coordinates for current world Yayaka is in. Will be able to find her, then you can return to Papika."

Cocona gulped. Inched forwards with one foot. Didn't step further. _Requires further reassurance. _Stood at her side, and took her hand with my real hand. A few rations dropped to the floor. Not risking arm failure again. "Won't let go." Tightened grip on her hand. Felt a light squeeze on my hand in return. Was startled by gesture.

"For Yayaka?"

I nodded. "For Yayaka."

Stepped into the portal to unknown world…

* * *

_Yayaka_

After I defeated the dragon on my next turn, it dropped a health potion (which I was hesitant to take, but ended up doing so as I didn't have much HP left after the battle. It fully restored me, and any injuries I had were gone. Tasted of strawberry) and also a dragon fang, identical to the one I passed to Toto before he and Nyunyu went back to Flip Flap. I had the harpoon Nyunyu left me, collapsed, and tucked into my weapon belt, along with the dragon fang (which got kinda warm against my hip, it seemed to give off a small amount of heat, but didn't burn through my armour). As soon as that was all over, I ran out of the castle as quickly as I could, and somehow managed to find a Hole to another part of Pure Illusion. It was a little strange, yeah, but it does happen sometimes, and I was pretty glad it did, because I tested again whether after defeating the dragon if I would be free to move, or it I'd still be stuck only being able to go forwards and backwards. My answer was 'forwards and backwards,' so yeah, the Hole was a relief in that way. The pixel world was interesting and all, but I don't wanna be stuck in a weird side-scrolling game with turn-based combat all my life.

The Hole took me to a world which had land that seemed to alternate between waves of pale blue fish scales, and patterned large patches of… something that felt a lot like I was walking on giant leaves. I made sure to just poke my head into the hole first, to make sure I wasn't going to fall to my death (that's happened to me once at least. Would've died if Yuyu hadn't grabbed me), and then quickly hopped through, before it could close on me.

The leaves made soft rustling noises to step on, and the scales crunched. They were a little slippery too, which was annoying as it meant I couldn't run anywhere in this world, or not with confidence at least. It doesn't help that a couple of times too, some of the surfaces I was walking on, whether scales or leaves, had just crumbled away underfoot, revealing a deep, endless space below. As much as I hated Asclepius, one thing I'm happy they did, was make sure to equip me with grappling wires, or I would have died at least three times by now… Although at the same time, I wouldn't have minded having a rocket pack like Toto's to use either…

I kept wanting to give him an order to scan the area, or to make sure Nyunyu hadn't run off somewhere, but every time I'd turn around to do so, I'd find no one else there. It made me feel uneasy.

This wasn't the first time I've been alone in Pure Illusion. There was one time when I somehow got caught in the void between worlds for a little while, not having been synched up to the twins, and I found myself in a world that was a replica of home. Thankfully, I didn't feel quite as overwhelmed as I did back then. It helped there weren't great colourful buildings looming over me here, and that sound didn't echo in the emptiness around me, but… It still wasn't all that easy being alone here.

_I have to be alone though. I don't want the others to get attacked by that shadow. It's my fault it exists in the first place. It's my responsibility, and I need to destroy it…_

I heard a loud growl, and spun around, fast, trying to determine the source of the noise, thinking it was some sort of beast or creature, only to feel a rumble from my stomach about a second later, and it occurred to me I hadn't eaten in… at least one day? Maybe even two. The more I thought about my situation, the dumber I felt. _I decided to trap myself in Pure Illusion to deal with an enemy that could be anywhere in a dimension that has thousands, hell maybe even millions or _billions _of worlds, with no way to track it down, and I don't have any food with me._

"I really didn't think this through…" I know there was no one around to hear me, but I spoke out loud, just so I could hear a familiar voice. I began to get antsy. I wanted to run around, to see if I could try and work this building anxiety out of my system somehow, but if I did that, there'd be no guarantee I'd be able to grapple myself to safety like all those other times…

I put a hand over my stomach, as it growled again, to try and silence it, a little worried that if there _was _anything lurking here, that it'd have no trouble trying to find me with the noise I was making… I activated my visor, either hoping for some glimpse or hint on what I could do next. Well, the most I got was a view that showed me rough outlines of weak floors, which was a start, but that was the only information I got.

_No wait… _There were a number of blips which flashed on my screen for a second. Literally only a second. Most of them were small yellow dots that appeared to be below the surface of the land, which made me a little concerned, as from the few times I'd fallen underneath, all I'd seen was a flat underside and emptiness below, but there was something different about one of the blips.

Unlike everything else that'd showed up on my visor, before or right now, one of those blips was red.

_A monster? _It must've been a big one, or at least a bigger threat than anything else in the area to be a different colour. Seeing that made me want to turn around and wander back the way I came, which I almost did... _But what if it's a Hole? _That thought made me look back over my shoulder. _What if it's my shadow? _That one made me grit my teeth and set off for the red dot. I had no idea if my shadow would show up a different colour on my visor or not, but if it did, and that was it, then I could fight it and face it after… how long have I been in here? _Doesn't matter. This whole thing could be over soon, then I can head home again._

I walked as quickly as I dared over the unreliable surface of the world. Some crackles as I walked over the fish scales made me flinch, as if they were going to crumble away, but when I realised my foot was steady on a solid surface I managed to relax again.

The red blip ended up leading me to a strange lumpy hill, which was a little difficult to clamber over, but I managed. At the top, I saw something that I hadn't encountered in Pure Illusion for a long time: signs of civilisation… Or at least there was what looked like a city of tents in the distance. _Could that be the red blip? A ton of life forms gathered in one place? _It was possible. Hidaka might have messed around with my visor at some point during all the time he had it and ended up changing one of the settings… Hell, maybe that's why everything only really showed up for a second, instead of being permanently on my screen unless I turned it off on purpose. I was pretty sure my stuff never did that before… _Or what if it was some sorta low-battery mode? _That thought worried me. I didn't seem to have any form of portable battery, or way to keep my visor powered. _Especially since I can't return to Flip Flap…_

My stomach growled loudly again, and I cursed myself for my stupid plan of stranding myself in Pure Illusion.

"At least there's a town nearby… There has to be someone that can help me…" Like before, I said that out loud, just to hear a familiar voice. There wasn't really any wind or noise in the world, beyond anything my feet made as they came into contact with the floor. I clicked my visor off, hoping that not using it would save any power I'd have left, and headed straight for the town.

* * *

As I got closer to the tent town, I put a hand on my rocket belt, just in case any inhabitants I came across were hostile. There didn't appear to be anyone in plain sight, but I was still hesitant to take my hand away.

Some of the tents were raised up on columns, or square blocks, which looked like they were made out of the fish-scale ground. The tents themselves came in all different colours and patterns, presumably made of the leaf-like material. I wondered briefly how they got all the stuff to stay together to build it, or how they did so without disturbing the ground like I had…

Actually, now I think about it, apart from the times I'd fallen through the ground, I haven't seen any holes or signs of anyone else having fallen through. _Maybe the people here know a trick to stop that from happening… _I didn't wander too deeply into the town, partly because I felt if I did, I'd either be ambushed or accidentally send some of the buildings tumbling into the void below, but also partly because the more I looked around, the more interested by the fish scales I became. Some of the tents on the outskirts were propped up on giant pillars that would make decent watch towers, and I thought originally, they were all the same shade of blue, but upon closer investigation, there were subtle gradients and places where the shades were different. Some had speckles, some made me think of a storm-lit sky…

But mostly I just wondered how they built those things. Curiosity got the better of me, and I put a hand to one of the towers (one of the lower down ones, so if I accidentally destroyed anything, I wouldn't do too much damage) and pushed against it. First lightly… then I tried to push with all my might. Didn't shift in the slightest.

"Huh…" It was odd, if you looked at the ground, it sorta curved upwards smoothly, where flat ground met the fish-scale wall, which again, suggested to me it was natural, but this was the only place in the area I've seen with raised walls like this, beyond the hill… Thinking of the shattering land earlier, and watching as parts of it fell, the leaves and scales were flakes and scraps, as they floated downwards… That would make me think they were kinda brittle, or at least that you couldn't reliably use them to build something solid… Yet I was standing in front of something which showed that wasn't the case at all.

There was something I wanted to try though. The only thing I could think of that'd answer how any of this was built.

Kneeling down, I scooped at some of the blue scales with my hands, and was surprised to find they were… it felt like I was handling gel or slime, rather than something solid. I withdrew my hand, leaving what looked like a little ocean wave on the ground… and it stayed. Just this little upward curve of blue, with a small space you could probably hide a chicken egg in.

_Eggs…_ I looked back towards the lumpy hills and suddenly became paranoid. _If everything else here is flat, apart from the towers... then something had to shape those hills, too… _Although I wanted to save what little battery power I had, I activated my visor again, and clicked it on, facing the direction of the hill… Sure enough, there were yellow blips underneath each and every lump…

And then there was a loud crack from that very direction.

I deactivated my visor, voicing my thoughts out loud "Oh no…" just as the land rumbled, and the lumps rose, expanding and bubbling, before erupting, revealing the many monsters hidden within…

_And I have to fight them alone…_

* * *

_Yuyu_

Landed in world. Majority of rations Cocona held in her arms lost to the void. Not surprised. Kept hold of some, and have quite a few in pockets though. Should be fine… For a while at least. Gave Cocona Hole devices so she could return, but kept some for myself. May be required to go back to Flip Flap or Asclepius if Yayaka runs out of food, or for emergency escape.

Landed in a world of scales and… fabric? Uncertain of material. Reached down to touch patterned land. Flat. Felt like canvas to touch. Each piece various colours. Could indeed be fabric. Scales could be part of it. Like some ancient armour or clothing from human history.

Cocona was looking around. Her hand was up to her chest, and her eyes wide. She hunched over, scared. Appeared vulnerable. Could see a number of opportunities to incapacitate her if required. Might as well be saying 'please attack me.' Would be easy to do in situation. No Papika, no transformation. No weapon or armour otherwise.

_Saw a shadow attack her. Didn't leave. Black wisps faded away, but may not have left. Could be possessed…_

Became suspicious of Cocona.

_((Could take Yayaka away from you…))_

Clenched jaw tightly. _Cocona wanted to help me. To help Yayaka. Not a bad person. Have trusted her before._

_Can still trust her._

Felt irritated, but tried to remain neutral. "Cocona-onee-chan." Said her name to get her attention. She turned to me and blinked.

"Not alone," said to remind her. Waited a while. Slowly, Cocona became calmer. Stood up straight. Looked alert.

"Sorry," she said. "I'm… just not used to being here without Papika." Looked sad "We said we'd visit all these new worlds together, but she hasn't been with me the past few times. It's a shame, because I think she'd like how colourful the past few worlds have been."

"Will save coordinates so you can see worlds with Papika," I promised. "Priority is Yayaka. Could have been in Pure Illusion for days already."

"R-right," she said.

Activated tracker in arm. Began to beep. Slow beeps… Rotated on spot, arm pointing out. Beeps became faster pointing in one direction.

"Yayaka found." Began to walk right away. Cocona was a second before catching up. She was fidgeting. Hands kept winding around each other.

Walked in silence. Cocona's hands still wringing around each other. Could see from the corner of my eyes. Starting to get more annoying. Focused elsewhere. Good thing I did. Stuck hand out in front of Cocona. She stopped, puzzled, before hearing loud CRACK!

Land in front of her fell. Shards of scales dropped into void below. Some fabric land with it. Became frayed at the edges, colours pale where torn away from main land.

"Floor is weak in places," said out loud. "Follow me."

Cocona nodded before stepping behind me. Was glad. Could no longer see her hands. But wasn't long before I heard pen scratch paper. Sound was minor, not irritating, but hard to ignore in silent world… Was curious to know what she was doing. Asked.

"I'm writing down what everything looks like," she said. "This might be good inspiration for a story one day."

_Written record of world…_ Stopped walking."Can I see?"

"Oh, sure," she said. Sounded startled, but handed over pen and notebook. Read words. Short and rapid. In note form most likely. Okay for simple records, but lack of accuracy. Looked up for a second at land around us. Were currently walking towards a hill. Bumps seemingly under surface. Then held Cocona's pen. Sketched quickly land around us. Returned items to Cocona and continued walking.

"Can show Papika the drawing, if not the world," I said. Took a second for Cocona to catch up. Heard her footsteps crunch behind me. Then became soft, as trod on fabric-land.

"Thanks, Yuyu…" appeared to stop talking, but could tell was hesitant to ask a question. "Hey… have you thought about doing illustrations at all? You know, like for a book or something?"

"No." Reply was abrupt.

Must have startled Cocona. "Well… it might be something to think about," she said. Voice was light, attempting to be friendly. "I was amazed watching you work in the art room when we went that time. I couldn't believe how fast you were, and just how detailed your painting looked! Do you…" Another pause in speech. "I mean, I want to be an author, and write books. I was thinking that if I ever needed an illustration… Would it be okay to ask you for help with that?"

Thought about it briefly. Art at school could be enjoyable. Painting for Yayaka was fun. Nodded. "Can assist you with that."

"Thank you, Yuyu." Could hear the smile in her voice. Smile pulled at my own mouth…

But then a rumble. Deep. Scale-land rattled. Fabric-land slid in places. Almost expected to rip and tear…

Looked towards hill. Sound coming from there. Beeping on arm became louder, more urgent. _Distress signal? _

"Yayaka!" Called her name, and charged over hill. Cocona came with me. _Will need to defend her. No weapons. _Held my real hand behind me for her to take. Didn't take it.

"Cocona, hold my hand. Without weapons, no way to defend yourself. Need to know where you are."

She made noise of confirmation before I felt her fingers close around my hand. _Will need to improve bond eventually. Communication issues could result in death. _I drew the sword from my weapon belt with robotic arm. Was slow to react, and had trouble gripping handle. Managed. Pressed button to extend blade. Suddenly shot out. Couldn't feel weapon in metal hand, but grip should be sufficient to keep hold of it.

Crested the hill, just as bumps in land rose and split. Slime stretched between scales, as they cracked open. Bulging out from underneath were monsters. Could only distinguish moist black skin. Every bump appeared the same. All opening to reveal creatures. Would be overwhelmed soon if hostile. _One close combat fighter with defective arm. One person with no fighting ability at the moment…_

"Need to get to Yayaka."Continued to lead Cocona down side of hill. _CRACK!_ One monster emerging from ground caused large rupture. Void yawning under feet.

Instinct was to save Cocona. Tried to swing her to other side before ground fell, hoping momentum from movement would get her to safety. She jumped before feet wouldn't have land to stand on. Made it to other side. Was relieved about that.

Instant after Cocona was saved, I let go of her hand on purpose. Could feel myself falling. Didn't want to risk dragging her down with me.

I dropped…

Then came to a halt. Wasn't sure how. Looked around. Saw Cocona gripping metal arm. One of her hands was on land beside her… Weak points all over her body. Would be an easy target for enemies. _Are surrounded._

"Defenceless like that!" I said to her. "Leave me!"

"Cocona?"

Was confused for a second at third voice.

Then realised.

"Yayaka!" Called her name.

"Yuyu? What the—" Saw her face appear over edge, purple eyes large and startled. Could see she wanted to ask questions, but was also wary of situation. Yayaka knelt, like Cocona, and grabbed metal arm. "Pull!" She commanded. Cocona obeyed. Combined effort pulled me onto land. Onto safety.

Immediately, I shook their hands off, sword outwards and ready. Yayaka took up position behind me. Cocona was in the middle of us.

"No Papika?" Yayaka asked.

"No. Not in condition to go to Pure Illusion." Answered quickly.

"Tch…" Yayaka made annoyed noise. "Okay, fine. Cocona? Stay near us at all times. We'll protect you. Yuyu? Don't you _dare_ let them get Cocona."

Felt smile pull at mouth_. _Oddly, felt comfortable in dangerous situation_. Ready to fight for our lives… But with Yayaka again. Team of three. Like previous times. _Cocona instead of Toto, but that fact irrelevant. Was with Yayaka again.

That was all that mattered.


	13. Chapter 12

_Yayaka_

I have no idea how the fragging hell Cocona and Yuyu managed to find me in Pure Illusion, but as we were surrounded by monsters, I didn't really care about that right now. The moment me and Cocona pulled Yuyu up from that crack in the world, I took up a defensive position, and Yuyu did the same.

The monsters in this world were… kinda peculiar. Wouldn't look out of place in a horror movie. When they first rose from the scaled ground, I thought that they were made entirely of slime, but as one thrust a long arm out, I saw that wasn't the case. They looked like hairless wolves for the body, skin stretched tight over their ribs, with spikes all along their front legs. Running along the spine, in addition to the row of spikes, was a thick blue shell, which continued along a whip-like tail, ending in a barb like a scorpion. Black liquid poured off them, thick like syrup, leaving strings of goo that hung between limbs like spider webs. Despite being built like wolves, the heads resembled a goat's more than anything, with the horizontal-pupiled eyes, jutting jaw, and a pair of curved horns forking forward. Unlike a goat though, their teeth looked thin, sharp and serrated, more like they belonged to a shark.

I watched one of the monsters flex its claws, a deep growl rumbling in its throat, when I saw another five leap at us from the corners of my eyes.

Yuyu was ready to react, and did so instantly. It was strange to see her fighting, without using a giant metal arm, instead she had a sword (which I never remember seeing before. Where the hell did, she get that?) which lashed out, slicing anything that came close. She was quick to move, I'd guess the thin, sharp sword being a lot easier to handle than a great heavy gauntlet. She'd swipe the blade at one monster, to keep it at bay, followed by a sweep of the blade in an arc, posing a constant threat to her numerous opponents.

Cocona had ducked, low to the ground, hands over her head, trying to stay out of the way of combat. Probably a smart move, as she was in her school uniform, and didn't appear to have any weapons on her. A couple of the monsters noticed her, and I grabbed the harpoon Nyunyu left me from my belt, activated it, and jabbed upwards at one of them.

I managed to catch it under the chin, and a dribble of oil began to leak from its face, onto the main body of the harpoon. I quickly withdrew it, and snapped around, trying to catch the other monster too. I just about managed to slap the blade of the harpoon against one of its horns, which made it turn its attention to me, rather than Cocona.

Changing target, wanting to take out the person that was more of a threat (or just pissed that I chipped its horn) it wasn't long before I had to deal with snapping jaws, and tried to stab outwards to keep the monster away from me. I could see another one trying to sneak up next to me, like it was planning to go for Cocona while I was busy trying to hold one monster off. I tried to look between the two, and make the harpoon seem threatening to both of them, jabbing outwards if they came close, but no such luck. They were getting more confident every time I moved and managed to inch slowly closer. Although a part of me was glad I was in Pure Illusion with Cocona at last, and I could be a real protector to her, and see a world with her, I wished she had some way to defend herself, as it wasn't exactly easy keeping her safe right now.

"Hey, Yuyu, can you help me out here?" I asked, just as one of the two monsters I was trying to hold off slashed at me. The other one gnashed its teeth in anticipation, knowing it was only a matter of time before I became too tired to remain a threat. I grimaced, as each move took more effort to make. _I can't do this much longer…_

"Unable to assist." Was her response. Her voice was strained, and I wasn't going to turn to her to find out why, as that would mean taking my eyes off of these two, and I _knew _if I stopped paying attention to them for a second that they'd be on me.

Then a scream pierced the air. _Cocona's scream. _There was a swift 'thud', and then a dragging noise, as if one of the monsters had bitten her leg, and was trying to pull her away from us. _Not on my watch!_

I tried to hop backwards, keeping those two wolves in my sight, and tried to aim my grappling wire at them, hoping I could somehow tangle them up, or keep them occupied long enough, so I could rescue Cocona. I would have tried to activate my visor, so that could target the enemies for me, but that would have meant having to let go of the harpoon, and I really didn't want to abandon the only thing that kept the monsters an extra foot or two away from me. Trying to calculate where the heck my wire would go with no visual guide was pretty difficult. _I'll just have to guess…_

I let off the shot, and heard a faint 'clink!' as it bounced off the blue shell. One of them looked a bit startled, wondering what had just tried to attack it probably, but the other just stared, its goat-like pupils looking like voids of madness. Its jaw dropped into what I swear was a grin, knowing that was probably the last attack I'd manage to get off.

Just then, I felt a heavy weight press against my back, and hooked claws piercing through my Flip Flap armour, forcing me to the ground. I was pretty sure I was bleeding. I heard a growl above me, and felt a thick line of goo drip down onto my back. It gave me a chance to glance and Yuyu and see how she was doing. She was the only one of us still standing, but she had three of the monsters on her. One had its teeth clamped around her metal arm. That alone was enough to make me wince, but the other two were snapping at her legs with their fangs, which explained why she wasn't able to help. The fabric for the trousers of her armour had been ripped away in places, leaving one shin exposed. It would only take one lucky strike to render that leg useless.

_This can't be happening… It can't end like this! _I felt a growl building in my own throat, trying to muster any courage and power I had left, so I could try and push myself up, and help the others. _They shouldn't even be here! They're gonna get killed! _My breath came out in hisses, as I felt the claws press further into my back. My hand reached for my rocket belt, but I wasn't sure it'd do too much good. The only target I could hit right now would be the floor, and that won't hurt the monsters at all…

_But the floor is weak. It crumbles, cracks and breaks…_

Despite this seemingly hopeless situation, much like my decision to trap myself in Pure Illusion, I got another really dumb idea. I couldn't really reach for my visor to aim, or see where the weak floor _was _exactly, but I could do some damage at least, and that _could_ save us, right? It might mean losing some of my rockets, but I wouldn't exactly need them, if all of us are pretty much facing imminent death. Rockets can't help dead people.

"Cocona! Yuyu! I'm gonna bust a hole in the floor. Get ready!"

I thought I could hear Cocona as she likely questioned what the hell I was doing, but it was pretty damn hard to hear over the loud 'BOOM!' that echoed in my ears, as I set one of my rockets off. I quickly shifted that hand to my grappling wire, and aimed it what I'd hope was a fair distance away, or at least enough to pull me to safety.

The force was just enough to send me up into the air, away from the swiftly shattering land. It looked like someone had just smashed a window in slow motion, and all the shards were slowly falling apart into a deep dark hole below. The monsters barely had time to react, and lost their footing, falling, with no hope of getting back up. On a couple, the thick oil of their bodies had managed to sorta glue them to the more leaf-like land, and they scrabbled to keep a hold, but it was futile, and they too, were lost. My wire caught on something, and I began to be pulled towards the point it landed, sharply.

Whipping my head around, I caught sight of Yuyu. I'd managed to take out one of the monsters attacking her, its claws scraped at the leaf-land, before shredding it and falling, but the other two (and Yuyu herself) were just out of range of the newly made gap in the ground. Yuyu dropped her sword from her metal hand, into her regular one, and jabbed outwards at the monster that had just taken her leg in its jaws. She swiftly decapitated it, before turning her attention to the one that was clamped to her metal arm.

_But what about Cocona?_ I turned to look. Cocona was too far out of range of my rocket blast for the monster to have fallen to its death, but my attack must still have caught it off guard, as it released its grip on Cocona at least, leaving her free to attack… Not that she had anything to attack with.

There were still quite a few monsters around, no way did my attack take all of them out, maybe it could have done if Toto was here to tell me where to shoot, but it was enough for now. I rushed over to Cocona and handed her my harpoon.

"Shut up and take it," I barked to her, before she could protest. "You need something to defend yourself with."

I quickly made a mental list of anything I had on me that could be used as a weapon. _Grappling wire? Maybe. Boots? They might be steel-capped, but I'd rather not get too close to one of those things if I could help it. Dragon fang? Same problem. Amorphous? Dead in my weapon belt…_

But then I remembered something else, and my fingers reached down to touch eerily cold metal. _Illusion Bronze… _I thought back to the battle with the dragon, and how the item box listed 'noise grenades' as an item, and thought about how loud everything was in the flooding temple. I wrapped my fingers around the can-shaped object, clasping the solid surface. _This thing had better work!_

I chucked it as hard as I could at a point somewhere between where Yuyu was standing, and where Cocona and me were. It touched the ground with a '_DING!_' that was so loud it felt like the whole world should have been shaking with the force of it, and the fragile land crumbling all over again.

By the looks of it though, that wasn't a bad decision to make, as all the monsters were pretty much immobilised by the noise grenade. Their mouths hung open, flat tongues lolling, and their limbs sort of… contracted, closer to their bodies, as if trying to shield themselves from the din.

Yuyu had managed to pry the monsters jaws off her metal arm and quickly beheaded it. Her red eyes flicked in my direction, and she ran over to two of us, leaving a small trail of blood behind her. The noise grenade had given us enough time to regroup, which was good, but the horde of monsters was still plentiful, and they were starting to recover. A few shook their heads, as if to shake off the remains of the noise, as they slowly crept towards us, preparing another attack.

"Yuyu, any ideas?" I asked. I had my fists out, and was standing in a fighting stance, ready to punch if I had to. Annoyingly, neither Hidaka or Yuyu decided to keep the arm spikes from my old gear. I barely used them when I had them available, but still, it would have reassured me right now that at least if one of the monsters got my arm, that I could potentially slice its tongue off if nothing else.

"Out of rockets?" Yuyu asked.

One of my hands twitched as I debated lowering it to my belt, ready to fire another one off, but this time, I was hesitant to do so. I might have thought 'rockets are no use to dead people' before, but now some of the monsters had been taken out, and a fair portion of them were still recovering from being stunned, I was feeling a bit more confident about being able to take them out without using up any more rockets. Besides, what if I used one and my aim was off and it just crashed uselessly? I felt like I should save what few I had left. _It's not exactly like I can just hop back to Flip Flap and get more… _I mean, I could ask Yuyu or Cocona maybe, but I'd rather they _stayed _back at Flip Flap, safe and out of the way of my mission. I wouldn't want them to come to Pure Illusion to deliver supplies to me, only for them to end up dead, or for the damn shadow to show up and kill them. I mean, yeah, it might bring the shadow closer to me, but it's not something I'd wanna risk someone else's life for. "I'd rather not use one, if I can help it," I replied.

I'm not sure, but I thought I could feel a wave of annoyance from Yuyu at that comment. _Does she think I should use one? _

I heard soft footsteps behind me, as Cocona approached Yuyu.

"Yuyu, is it okay if I use your power for a moment?" The blue-haired girl sounded nervous as she asked the question. I didn't hear a response, but I'd guess Yuyu nodded, giving consent, as the next thing I heard was "Flip… Flapping!"

An aura of magenta light pooled on the floor around me, and I cast a shadow across the scaly land. The monsters froze in their tracks, upon seeing one of their targets change in appearance. _Could they sense her power? _

I risked a look around and saw Cocona holding the harpoon tightly in both her hands. It was crackling with magenta lightning, and the sharp end of it was glowing bright pink. I wanted to question what she was doing, but I didn't even have the time to say her name, before she thrust it downwards, and I was bowled over by a shockwave.

I landed flat on my back, which irritated my wound from one of the creatures, and I hissed with pain.

Despite that though, I tried to get myself standing as quickly as possible so I could get back into the fight... only to see that all the monsters had gone. In the exact places they were, sat squat little heaps of cracking blue shell. The oil from their bodies was seeping into the ground below, revealing strange patterned skin, which looked an awful lot like the leaves, underneath...

_Wait... Are we walking on the corpses of all of these creatures? _The thought made me feel a little sick.

_But is Cocona okay? And Yuyu, too?_ I saw Yuyu flat on her front, but her eyes were open and I could see her blink as she looked up at me. It wasn't long before she stood. Turning my attention to Cocona however... worried me.

Like Yuyu, she was flat on the floor, but she wasn't giving off light any more. The harpoon lay shattered at her side, her hand still around the handle, which looked a bit like a short wooden stake.

"Cocona?" Yuyu spoke first. It took me a little longer than I'd like to find my own voice.

"Hey, Cocona? Are you okay?" And when it came out, it sounded more like it belonged to a whispering mouse than a person. She didn't seem to be moving, and didn't respond when we called her name. _We need to find some help._

"Where's Toto when you friggin' need him?" I muttered, as I lifted Cocona's arm and placed it around my shoulders. She seemed to wake up a little, I thought I heard her mumble my name, and she gave a weak smile. Relief hit me like a truck. _She's alive at least... _"We need to get moving," I said. "I hope there's some kinda medical building in that town..." Saying that out loud made me turn to Yuyu. "How's your leg?"

Yuyu tilted her head to the side in confusion, before looking down and seeing the line of blood. "Wasn't aware of injury," she said, looking back up at me. "Bleeding seems to have stopped though."

"Well, that's good at least. Are you okay to walk?"

Yuyu nodded, but I swear her mouth twitched a little. Was that a wince? It was hard to tell. "Come on," I said to her, as we walked to the town.

* * *

_Yuyu_

Couldn't feel injury in leg until Yayaka pointed it out. No pain. Just blood. Not sure that was a good sign. Could usually feel pain. Teeth from monster looked capable of severing limbs easily. Wound is minor, but should still hurt. _Concerning._

Didn't notice town originally when made it down the hill. Focus was Yayaka being under attack. Tried to help her, but couldn't do much. _Provided power for Cocona to take out enemies. Was useful._

Wandered through town for a while. Appeared deserted. Felt odd seeing creatures earlier disintegrating, and seeing scale towers here. Purposefully shaped? Or result of dead creatures stacked on top of each other? Unknown.

"Hey! Is there anyone here?!"

Yayaka started shouting for attention. Unsure if a good idea, but may be required. No one else around otherwise.

"Can send Cocona back to Flip Flap. Have Hole devices. Will send signal to Flip Flap saying to find her at Asclepius' base." I suggested.

"You have Holes?" Yayaka asked. Sounded angry, "You should have sent her back the moment that fight started, she could have been killed!" Yayaka scowled. "What the crap are you two doing here, anyway?!"

Suddenly felt shy. Didn't want to answer. Reached into belt pocket and pulled out Asclepius ration. "You need food." Felt guilty for not remembering in the first place. _Could have starved... Would have been my fault._

Yayaka seemed puzzled for a moment. Then realised I was holding a ration. Her stomach growled loudly. Yayaka snatched it from my hands. Tore open wrapper. Took a bite. Her face screwed up from taste she disliked... But chewed and swallowed.

"Man, these things suck…" she said. Took another bite. Chewed and swallowed. Finished the ration entirely, and then spoke again. Seemed calmer. "Wait, you guys came here, because I needed food?"

Nodded. Looked down at feet. Think face heated up. Focused on patterns on scale ground.

"You surprise me, Yuyu... thanks." Yayaka said. Looked up at her. Saw small smile on her face. _Doesn't blame me for forgetting food. _Felt a bit better. Yayaka about to speak again, but interruption. Snuffling noise. Both looked around, alert. Eventually saw source of sound: small creature peering over edge of a tower, below a tent.

Nose poked out first, then slowly, the rest of it. Revealed a being with the head of a shark, pointed cat ears. Small. Bodies hidden beneath crude clothing made of land-fabric. Movements suggested ape-like body. Walked on all fours. Leapt down from tower, followed by another shark being. Both landed at Yayaka's feet. Both chirped up at her. Yayaka's stance changed. Foot shifted, ready to kick if required.

"You guys friendly?" she asked, looking down at them. No response. Creatures continued to sniff. One clambered up onto Cocona's back, caused her to grunt with pain. Change in Yayaka was instant. Furious. "Hey! Get off of her!" Reached over and pulled shark being from Cocona. It fell to the floor, landing on its butt. Appeared dazed. Rubbed top of its head with a small hand. The other one approached it and chirped. _Communicating? _Appeared to be. A few more creatures had come out from hiding, many appearing from inside of the towers. Would guess they are hollow inside.

Yayaka seemed to dislike creatures, glaring around at them. Many were gathering around us. I saw no reason to be concerned. If hostile, would have attacked already. Seemed harmless. More began to squeak and chirrup as if conversing. Bobbed like birds as they made noises.

Eventually, five of them all turned to Yayaka. Opened mouths, making different sounds… long drone. Then: "…Tuh?" sudden noise.

"Are they trying to speak to us?" Yayaka asked me.

"Uncertain." Looked down at beings. "Repeat noises."

Was unsure if they could understand me. And then… "Huuurrrr… tuh?" Realised, attempting to communicate with us. Requested noises again before recognising attempted speech. _Saying 'hurt'._

"Yes." Said as both answer to Yayaka and small sharks. _Difficult for them to communicate. Use simple language. _"Yes. Friend hurt. Need help."

Five cat-eared heads looked at each other. Made further noises, mix of them. _Translating? _Unusual. Possible each has knowledge of few words. Need to work together for complete understanding of language.

"We don't have time for this," Yayaka mumbled. Turned to me, "Just go head back with Coco—AH!"

THUMP! Multiple bodies knocked us all to floor. Sharks pulled Cocona from Yayaka's grasp.

"Hey! Give her back you—" Protested, but sentence ended with hiss of pain. All were being carried to open area of the town. No major landmarks. Just a clearing in the middle of tents and towers. Were dropped in the middle.

Moment Yayaka was dropped, she began to stand. Shark jumped on her back.

It began to hiss. "Ssssssss…" Others joined in. "Tuh" "Ayyyyyyy" "Hehhhhhhh…" "lup."

Realised more speech. "Telling you to 'Stay.' Will 'Help'" Translated for Yayaka. She didn't seem happy about it.

"Do you trust them?" She asked me.

"Would have attacked by now if hostile. Are vulnerable. Easy targets. No hostile actions taken. Think they can be trusted."

"Tch…" Yayaka made annoyed noise. Would guess wanted to act, but didn't want to upset potential allies. Could understand. Sharks known for sharp teeth. To provoke them would be unwise. Easily outnumbered here.

Watched them bumble about. Looked fierce, but seemed... dopey. Big, curious eyes. _They're kind of cute._ Would want to pet one.

"How's Toto doing?" Yayaka asked, while sharks began to work, healing us. "Did he make it back to Flip Flap okay? And Nyunyu?"

"Yes," I reported, "both arrived safely."

Heard Yayaka let out a sigh of relief. "I'm glad to hear that…"

"Toto undergoing medical treatment though." Became worried. Voice changed from monotone to hint of sadness.

"He seemed to be in pretty bad shape when he left me…" Yayaka said, echoing concerns. "But that healing machine's at Flip Flap now, so he should be fine." Confident words, but voice betrayed real emotion. _Just as worried as me…_

Time passed. No sun in the sky. No colour to sky. But time passed. Heard squeaks and saw sharks move around us all. Carrying various equipment. All tended to physical wounds. Bandaged us up. Seemed to spend a while treating Cocona. Yayaka and I were recovered enough. Both sat up, and watched the sharks work. Yayaka sat forward, head resting on a hand.

"Are they going to be able to fix her?" She asked. Sounded anxious. Saw emotion reflected in her purple eyes. Looked… lost and hurt. Wanted to comfort her… Could only think of words to say. Didn't say them. Not sure they would help.

No medical knowledge.

Can't comfort.

Want to help. Can't help…

_Yayaka wanted Toto here… Can understand. Can help with injuries… _But her saying that… Aware am not as useful in this situation as Toto. He would know how to comfort Yayaka. Built for support. Me? Only built to fight… Became annoyed. _Wanted Toto here. Not me. _Clenched fists at side. _At arcade, all congratulated Toto, not me. Toto more popular at school. People want him…_

_Never want me…_

Felt something bump into me. Was knocked out of thoughts. Looked down. Saw a shark. Its ears twitched. Blinked up at me with big eyes. Found myself smiling at it. Wanted to pet it. Raised real hand to do so, and it ran away. Noticed a red glint on hand near fingernails. _Odd. _Wanted to investigate, but Yayaka spoke.

"Do you wanna pet a shark, Yuyu?"

Dropped hand. Saw Yayaka looking at me. She continued: "When I was in Pure Illusion alone... You know, that world that was a replica of home? I went to an aquarium when I was there, and they had a shark petting pool. I don't know if that place was only in Pure Illusion, but if it turns out to be on Earth too, we could go there one day, if you wanted, when I come back from Pure Illusion."

_'We could go there one day, if you wanted.' _Pictured being at aquarium with Yayaka. _Would watch the fish. Shards of colours flashing like amorphous, gliding through water as if in flight. Would be there with Yayaka... _Thought made me feel a little nervous... But spending time with Yayaka would be nice. _Kind Yayaka, who wants me to have chances like a normal human. _Felt warm. Small smile pulled at face. Was about to agree to suggestion, when heard a groan from Cocona.

"Ughh…"

"Cocona!" Yayaka got up immediately. Went to her side. Felt a pang looking at them. Didn't like seeing them together. Cocona being well was good, but Cocona and Yayaka… Didn't like it.

Fists clenched more, but approached.

"Yayaka… Yuyu… You're both okay…" Cocona's eyes mostly closed, but aware we were here. She smiled with relief. Felt irritation leave. _Cocona is better. Yayaka is alive. All is fine._

* * *

_Yayaka_

I was tempted to hold Cocona in my arms. I really was, but I held myself back from doing so. The voice in my head might have left me, but annoyingly my feelings themselves hadn't gone with it. If I held Cocona, I wouldn't have wanted to let go. Instead, I settled for just being hear her. It was such a relief to see those warm brown eyes again…

But as nice as it was, she couldn't stay here. She'd be in danger.

"How are you?" I asked her.

"A little tired..." Her voice was soft and sleepy. Her hair looked a little scruffy, as if she'd just woken up... I found myself smiling at her, thinking how cute she looked. _But she's not mine... _That made my face fall a bit more neutral, but that was probably a good thing. I didn't really want to be questioned about the dumb look on my face by anyone... _Stop thinking about that, Yayaka. The longer Cocona and Yuyu are here, the more danger they could be in! Send them home! _I completely killed the smile on my face, and took on a more serious expression.

"Are you good to travel?" Like usual, the question came out harsher than I meant it, but this time maybe it'd help get across that she needed to go back home right now.

"I... I think I can do a little..." she said, standing up. She slowly seemed to be becoming more aware of her surroundings and where she was. She looked down at the little shark people, who were circling around us. "What's going on?" she asked confused. "Where are all the monsters? Who are these creatures?"

I quickly explained. "You did some sort of shockwave attack, and took all of the bad monsters out, but it seemed to take a lot out of you, and you collapsed. Me and Yuyu bought you here. The sharks helped."

At that moment, a number of the sharks began to chirp and squeak. All of them directed their communications to Yuyu. I had no clue what they were saying, but she seemed to be able to figure it out, and answered them.

"Yes. All safe. You helped. Thank you. Are okay. Can leave." She said. The sharks turned to each other and seemed to be debating something. Eventually, they left us alone, going back to the blue scale towers, climbing up them with tiny clawed hands, and hid themselves back inside. Not gonna lie, I was pretty relieved they were gone. I know Yuyu said they wouldn't hurt us, but after the first lot of enemies we encountered here, I was hesitant to trust them. I hadn't realised how tense my body was, until I felt myself relax, now we were no longer surrounded.

I got straight to the point. "You two need to go back to Flip Flap," I said, standing up. "Yuyu said she has Holes-"

"Will stay." Yuyu said.

I turned to her, and saw those red piercing eyes return my gaze. "No, you won't," I said, trying to sound more like the commander I was used to being. "Look, I appreciate you guys coming here, but I don't want..." _your help. _That's what I was going to say, but that would have been a lie. If I had their help, it would be a lot easier to get around. _I probably would have died back there if it wasn't for them... But I don't want_"...you to get hurt."

"Yayaka-"

I cut off Cocona before she could protest. "Please, both of you, just get out of here." I tried to sound tough, but it felt like my voice could break any moment. "This is _my _thing I have to deal with." I was on the verge of begging, trying not to cry as I tried to persuade them to go.

They were both silent as they regarded me. Then, Cocona and Yuyu looked at each other, as if sharing a silent conversation.

"Yayaka..." I thought it would have been Cocona who'd spoken, but I was surprised to hear Yuyu's voice. I turned to the silver-haired girl. "You forgot food. Forget to eat." Her usually monotone voice seemed to hold a hint of gentleness to it. Her eyes had closed a little too, as if attempting to smile without using her lips. "Came here because you need food." She opened the pockets on her weapon belt, and revealed...

"Crapping hell..." I exclaimed, which made Cocona smirk. She clearly found the fact I was shocked at how many damn ration bars I saw in Yuyu's weapon belt amusing, but _seriously, _every friggin' pocket was _full _of them! "Why did you take so many?!" It just seemed so absurd to me that I had to ask.

"Yuyu was worried about you," Cocona said, with a light smile on her face. "The moment she realised you were stuck; she ran straight to Asclepius' base to find the rations. It seemed to me like she would have tried going to Pure Illusion alone, just to give you them. I decided to come with her, so she could get to you safely."

I was stunned. It was _Yuyu _who thought about the food? _Yuyu_ who would have risked going to Pure Illusion alone, _for me?_

"...Is that true?" I asked. It probably had to be, but I felt it hard to believe, so I felt the need to ask.

Yuyu nodded. Before quickly turning her head away from me, and her eyes were looking in a different direction entirely as if she was embarrassed by admitting it. But... I felt touched. _She did this for me…_ I could only stare at Yuyu, who continued to find the floor fascinating, meanwhile, I was pretty sure Cocona was looking between the two of us and smiling. It was her that spoke first, "I'll go back to Flip Flap," she said.

Yuyu seemed to snap to attention, hearing Cocona's voice. "Will stay." She said. Yuyu was looking at me again, red eyes sharp and determined.

Oddly, as I looked at her... I didn't find myself wanting to yell at her to go back to Flip Flap with Cocona. As much as I felt I needed to deal with my shadow alone, the fact I didn't even think about food, and ended up surrounded by monsters on the first world after Toto and Nyunyu left me, (which meant I'd probably be dead if Cocona and Yuyu hadn't shown up)… That and the fact I had no idea how to use a Hole for an emergency escape, or hell, even to _leave_ Pure Illusion, began to make me think otherwise. _Maybe I should have someone here with me after all..._

"Are you absolutely sure, Yuyu?" I asked. As much as she said she wanted to stay, I felt that I should still give her the chance to back out while she could. "It's gonna be dangerous."

"Am sure," Yuyu said, putting a hand over her heart. I found the fact she did that gesture a little bizarre, it felt a bit like she was saluting me, but I wasn't going to comment on it. I still felt kinda bad for calling her weird back in the café the other day.

"Okay. Then you can come with me." I turned to Cocona. "You know how to get back home?"

"Yes. Yuyu taught me how," She said, as she pulled a Hole device out of her skirt pocket. It seemed like she was about to use it but had second thoughts and turned to look up at the two of us. "Are there any messages you want me to take back to Flip Flap before I go?"

"Wish Toto a speedy recovery," Yuyu said "Also apologies to Hidaka, as won't be around for a while." Cocona nodded, before she went over to Yuyu and gave her a hug, causing the silver-haired girl to jolt with surprise. Yuyu didn't push her away though, and they stayed like that for a little while, to the point of I started to wonder if Cocona was whispering something in Yuyu's ear. _A secret message? If so, then what is she saying? _It might have been nothing at all, but I couldn't help wondering. When Cocona let go of her sister, she turned to me. "Yayaka, is there anything you want to say to anyone back at Flip Flap?"

_Messages for back home… _"Tell Toto I hope he gets better soon, too" I was glad to hear he made it back at least… _But at what cost? _It was hard to try and keep that thought out of my mind. I tried to turn my attention to any other messages I could have for anyone back at Flip Flap, and my mind went straight to Papika. "How's Papika doing?" I asked.

Cocona gave a sad smile. "She's a little fragile right now… But I think she'll be okay in time. I promised her I'd look after her when I go back…" she shuffled her feet, as if she felt guilty, staying here for so long. _She got caught up in the fight and got knocked out because she and Yuyu came after me… Cocona should head back as soon as possible... _The selfish side of me wanted her to stay and come with us... _But she chose Papika, not me... and if Cocona stayed here, then there's no telling if Papika would ever recover…_ I didn't really know much about what happened to Papika, but if it left her looking as haunted as she did, I think she'd need Cocona to be with her.

I grit my teeth, starting to get angry at myself. _And I wanted Cocona to stay with me…_ I despised the part of me that would have sacrificed Papika's wellbeing, just so I could stay with the person I loved for a little longer… _It's wrong to think like that. Cocona isn't mine, and I can't keep her all to myself. I need to let her go… _

_But before she heads back,_ "Tell Papika I'm sorry I wasn't there to protect her… And that I'm sorry for how I treated her when I was a part of Asclepius." I probably didn't need to add that last part, as Papika seemed to warm up to me quite a lot, but thinking about Papika getting attacked by my shadow, and how badly I'd treated her before at Asclepius… _I was never all that nice to her to start with… But when we both went to rescue Cocona, she didn't say a single bad thing against me… And she's tried to reassure and comfort me when I was upset at Flip Flap… Papika could find it in her heart to spare me some kindness after all of that… and now I've gone and repaid her with my stupid selfish thoughts of how I want her girlfriend for myself… _"Tell her, I can understand if she hates me" _I'm not too fond of myself either…_"And that I really am sorry for everything…" _Especially, those self-centred thoughts, which have somehow taken a physical form and seem intent on hurting everyone..._

I felt as heavy as Doctor Salt looked when I'd finished speaking. It was only four sentences I said out loud, I know, but… the thoughts I had between them didn't really help. The expression on Cocona's face had turned from one of careful listening to one of empathy, and her hands were over her heart as she looked at me. I was on the verge of crying, feeling overwhelmed by the guilt of everything. All of a sudden, Cocona threw her arms around me in a hug. My heart rate jumped, as I felt those arms encircle me, before squeezing. I closed my eyes, trying to hold onto the feeling of being hugged by the person I loved the most. _It might be the last time I get the chance to feel __anything like this... I'm sorry, Cocona… I'm so sorry… _

"I don't think you've done anything wrong, Yayaka." She said, softly. "I think Papika's long forgiven you for the way you treated her before, but I'll pass all of the message on for you, just in case." She squeezed me a little tighter. "Please be careful in Pure Illusion. I know you said you have something important to do here, but if it gets too dangerous, promise me you'll come back home." She gave me another squeeze, which was nearly enough to break my ribs, before she finally said, "You're my best friend, Yayaka. I love you."

I think my heart just stopped for a second there. _Cocona loves me... _It was a nice thought, but… I just couldn't understand _why _she would care about me, especially if she knew what I was thinking a few seconds ago.

"I..." _Love you, too, Cocona. I love you, and I want to be more than just your best friend... And that's the whole reason you guys are in danger in the first place... I'm sorry, but I _"… can't promise that." I was holding her as tightly as she was holding me. _I'm doing this for you and for everyone back home. Pure Illusion is dangerous enough without my shadow in it, but I have to take it out. For some reason it seems to be targeting you guys, and I can't let it do that, because, _"I need to do this, to keep all you softies safe..." _I'm not happy with the fact Yuyu wants to come with me, I want to keep her safe too, but I think I'm gonna need someone here, and she's volunteering... _"Look after Papika... And take care of the others too."

It was really hard to release her from the hug, hell it was the last thing I wanted to do right then, but I forced myself to let go. She didn't look happy about me wanting to stay in Pure Illusion, but she seemed to have accepted my decision at least.

"Do you have anything else you want to say to anyone at Flip Flap before I return?"

_Messages for Flip Flap… _I looked over at Yuyu, who was watching the two of us. Her hands were curled into fists at her side, which I thought was a little strange, but I didn't say that out loud. _Yuyu had a message for Hidaka, to say she won't be back for a while… She wants to come with me… _I had no idea why the hell Yuyu would do something so kind for me, I felt I didn't deserve _any _kindness after what I'd done to Papika… _I want to find a way to thank her for staying with me… _I didn't really have a clue what I could do though… But then my mind came up with something…

"Have you got any paper?" I asked Cocona. She quickly replied she did, before pulling her notebook out of her skirt pocket, and tearing a page of it off, giving it, and her pen, to me.

I still felt kinda heavy from feeling sad earlier. As heavy as Doctor Salt. _And Salt owes me a favour… _I got scribbling on the paper. 'Salt, you still owe me a favour for saving Papika.' I scribbled down the rough address of the music shop we'd been to when I showed the amorphous kids around town. 'There's a white piano in there. I want it.' I folded the paper up, wrote his name on one side of it, and handed it to Cocona. What Salt would make of my request I have no idea, but I hope he'd follow up on it. _After all, Yuyu has two arms now. She can learn to play... And then one day, she and Toto can perform together._

Cocona seemed a little surprised at the fact I'd addressed the note to her father, but she tucked it into her skirt pocket to deliver later on.

"Wait." Yuyu said. She beckoned Cocona over and held her hand out. Cocona looked down at the hand before looking back up at Yuyu.

"Do you want to write something down?"

Yuyu nodded. Cocona took her notepad and pen out again, and handed them to Yuyu. She scribbled something down on a page quickly before giving it back. "Coordinates for safe world," she said. "Can use Hole device or Asclepius portal to go there if needed."

Cocona didn't quite seem to know what to do with the information, but she nodded and thanked Yuyu anyway. After returning the notebook to her pocket again, she looked down at the Hole device in her hand, ready to throw it, but it seemed she had a message for the two of us as well, before she left.

"Please take care of each other." Her voice was quiet, but it held a lot of emotion to it. "I'll come back for you as soon as I can."

I was about to protest. To tell her not to bother coming back to us, but before I could say anything, she activated the Hole and a black portal yawned open in the ground. It swallowed her as she jumped in, and disappeared, leaving me and Yuyu standing alone amongst the blue towers...

* * *

_Authors note: I thought it was about time I had a friendly civilisation in Pure Illusion, or at least, something that wasn't going to kill everyone, as I thought it'd been a while since they'd ran into something that was harmless. I feel it may be the last time something like that happens for a little while though..._

__I admit I'm not quite happy with this chapter and how it's turned out, but I'm gonna leave it, so I can move on. _I feel that Yayaka's decision to agree to letting Yuyu stay happened kinda suddenly, but I wasn't quite sure how to lengthen the segment/build on it, so if it seems short to you, that's why. I've been planning for this to happen for quite a while now, in addition to the conversation Cocona and Yayaka have while they hug, although in my original version, that scene was going to happen MUCH earlier on and be kinda different in its entirely. I originally thought I'd have to scrap that entirely, which annoyed me, because I was happy with the original version of the scene I wrote, but I found a way to work it in, although edited and I feel it doesn't quite work as well. Stories and art and other things you work on tend to have minds of their own though. Something I wanted to happen way back in chapter 4 or 5 of my original story plans ended up happening approx 86k words la- 86k words? Wow... I mean... There's some things I've been planning since maybe halfway through the other fic whic have yet to happen, but... that's a lot of words._


	14. Chapter 13

_Authors note: I stray into a third character POV here, I admit, because any plans I have for Pure Illusion at the moment, all of which I feel should happen after time has passed/later in the fic, so I've written a third POV to help some time pass in the fic a bit. Even though the next big Pure Illusion world I have in mind is based on/inspired by a video game (which I feel would be too good of a chance to pass up for my fic) I'm I wanna try and work out a few things or build up a thing or two before I can add it in... There might be a while between this update and the next few, just a fair warning now._

* * *

_Yuyu_

Cocona left two of us alone in the blue scale world. Half-expected sharks to come back out from hiding. Didn't. Admit, am a little disappointed. Was hoping I could pet one.

"We need to get moving..." Yayaka said. Sounded... annoyed. She pivoted and began to leave the town. I followed. _Said I would help Yayaka. _

"Have you eaten enough?" Need to ask.

"I'm fine," she grumbled. Didn't appear to want to talk. Was concerned, but would likely anger her if I continued to ask. I became silent. Yayaka activated the visor on her Flip Flap equipment. Looked around, scanning area. Saw a red dot blink on the screen when she looked near my direction. Tilted head to the side. Didn't ask out loud what it was, but Yayaka answered anyway.

"I saw a red dot blink up on here a while ago, and it led me to the town... We're standing on the other side of the town now, and the dot is still a distance away."

"Target destination?"

"I guess. Honestly, I have no idea where to go," she began to walk in the direction of the red dot. Deactivated visor. "But everything on our equipment before has shown up yellow. I've never seen red before..." Turned to me. "Did you or Hidaka mess with my visor?"

"Not touched it. Possible Hidaka did. More likely to have broken something in investigation."

"Tch... figures..." She muttered. "But still, the fact I saw something red instead of yellow, there has to be something there, right?"

Nodded, agreeing with her... But wondered. Had to know, "Why did you strand yourself here?"

Yayaka didn't answer for a while. Her mouth became tight line, not wanting to speak. Eventually, "Something to do with that red dot... I think."

"Not even sure why?"

Yayaka hunched over a little, as if a threatened animal. Began to shout. "I know why! I just-" cut herself off. Straightened herself, and took a deep breath. Spoke calmly. "I'll tell you later, I promise. I just... I don't want to say right now."

Yayaka looked troubled. Stressed. She activated her visor, tracking red blip, deactivated and began to walk in that direction.

"I should try and send a message to Toto, see if I can ask him if he can examine this red dot for me. Maybe he can pick up some data on it..." She turned to me. "I assume he'll be able to pick up data from my visor still?"

"Should be."

We stood still as Yayak relayed her message and sent it to Toto. Yayaka looked like she was about to talk again when her visor beeped twice. "Frag, that was fast..." she muttered. Clicked it to see Toto's response. "Toto said it'll take a day to examine." She frowned.

"One Flip Flap day?" Asked for clarification.

"That's what I'd guess... Time in Pure Illusion is different depending on the world you're in..." She turned her visor off and continued walking towards the destination she last saw the red dot. "We don't know what it is, and it might not be the best idea, but until we hear back from Toto, it's the only thing we really have to go on... so we're gonna try and find it..."

* * *

Travelled for a while, but eventually had to stop. Yayaka grew tired and needed to rest. I gave her a ration, which she grumpily accepted and ate. Good to see her eating. May dislike taste, but must be better than feeling hungry. Sometimes Yayaka returned from Pure Illusion looking sick or unwell. Didn't always pack enough food for her. Was mostly indifferent to her the times that happened in the past... Understood she was alive, but not _aware _she was alive... Like music. Knew I was alive before music, but not _felt _alive until hearing music. Knew Yayaka was human, alive and with emotion like Toto and I, but didn't think about it until she thanked us after the Iron Boys attack.

Before, was just sort of a job. Babysit Yayaka, keep her alive in Pure Illusion until all amorphous gathered, or Asclepius found new human who could go there. Didn't matter then if Yayaka died... Didn't matter to Asclepius at least... But after Iron Boys? Began to matter to me.

_Yayaka is kind. She cares. _Watched her as she ate. Didn't know how much she needed to eat... But am confident there's enough for a while here. _Yayaka won't go hungry this time. _

"The hell are you smiling at?" She asked, looking at my face. _I'm smiling?_ Put hand to face. Was smiling. Face fell neutral. Yayaka finished eating. Had some water from her collapsible water bottle. She stood and activated visor again.

"The red dot's gone..." She said. Looked up and down. "Not above or below..."

"Another world?"

"Could be, but we'd need to wait for a random Hole to appear to take us there..."

"Can make a Hole." Took a device from a pocket on my armour. "Any coordinates?"

Yayaka blinked, putting a hand to her forehead. "... Man, I_ am _dumb, I didn't even think about using those to get between worlds... Not that I know how to use them anyway..." She activated her visor again, "No coordinates... Just set it somewhere random." She said. Began to do as she ordered. Turned bands on device, aiming for random world. Was twisting when suddenly-

"Wait! Put that one back for a second," Yayaka said. Did so and looked at her. Saw red dot appear on her screen. She smirked. "I think we might know where to go after all. Yuyu, open a Hole to that world!"

I nodded and obeyed. Threw device to the ground. The metal case dissolved as the portal inside expanded. Yayaka held out a hand for me to take. Stared at it for a moment, suddenly feeling nervous, but reached out with real hand and took it.

Her hand was warm. Nice to hold.

"You ready?" She asked. I nodded.

Together, we jumped into an unknown world...

* * *

_Toto_

Cocona had noticed Yuyu's absence from the medical room, and quickly followed her, after a quick promise to Papika that she would be back soon. I didn't think it was strange Yuyu ran away. I've noticed she seems to have become fond of Yayaka lately, and she probably wants to find a way to help her somehow. It would be nice if that did happen. I would have stayed with Yayaka longer if I could, but I was in no condition to do that.

That, and I _did _promise Yayaka I'd go back to base if I got worse.

I knew the countdown above my head was counting down how many turns I had left to say, but it took Yayaka a little while to catch on. Yes, I may have pushed myself a little too hard, but if Yayaka wanted to stay in Pure Illusion alone, I couldn't exactly leave her in the middle of a battle with a dragon. I had to leave eventually though. After my transformation cut out, breathing was difficult. It felt like steel bands were restricting my chest, and getting tighter every turn I stayed there. I know I was cutting it fine with one turn left, but Yayaka needed as much help as she could get.

I hope she's okay.

Hidaka and Nyunyu spent quite a while examining the results from my scans. Hidaka mumbled and hummed to himself, but didn't reveal his thoughts. Nyunyu looked between the magenta-haired scientist and the results, likely trying to learn and copy. Well, if they did work out a solution to my situation, I would welcome it. The machine that heals me and Yuyu has a little blood remaining, but I felt it'd be a waste to use it all on me. I doubted it could reverse orgran crystalisation.

When Hidaka was certain I would no longer be in danger from lack of oxygen, he allowed me to finally sit up, and removed my external breathing equipment. It made no difference to me, being back on Earth. My chest no longer felt like it had metal bands constricting it, which was an improvement, but breathing was still difficult. If I raised a hand and pressed it over my chest, I could feel hard lumps inside.

I doubted I could go back to school again...

I looked down at the little green bear keychain in my hand. I never let go of it, since I took it out of my pocket in Pure Illusion. _Ruri-chan..._ It would be nice if I could see her again one day, but I should have some time to recover, before I consider it. Needing to eat may not be a requirement for mine and Yuyu's existence, but that didn't stop it from making me feel queasy and nervous whenever I was around Ruri...

* * *

_I couldn't stay with her for very long when Yayaka told me to go talk to her at the arcade. I recognised her voice instantly, when I heard her cheer for me on the dance machine. A sweet voice, one that belonged to someone who's laughter sounded like a small bell's chimes. When I stepped down, after finishing my dance, and she hugged me... It was one of many times it felt like my stomach was fluttering. My heart was beating quickly too, although that could have been from the dance machine. The most I could do was watch for a few minutes as she played a crane game and lost. I'd noticed she seemed determined to win a particular plush keychain from it: a pink whale. _

_I'd also observed from other claw machines around us that they all appeared to have a set number of attempts, before the claw's grip would be enough to actually win a prize. It was rigged._

_Ruri was down to her last few yen, and she was debating having another try. I said she should try, when she handed me the coins and said 'you do it.' I blinked in surprise, and am quite sure if I could sweat, that Ruri would have felt my palms would have been wet when she placed the coins in them. I did as she asked, and successfully obtained the pink whale keychain, which she watched eagerly as the claw held it tightly and dropped it into the prize chute. She was ecstatic with her prize, and that had earned me another hug... But when she pulled away and examined her prize, she noticed a second had somehow gotten attached to it. Niether of us had noticed it, maybe someone had left it in the prize chute, but I was surprised when she handed me the little green bear. I said it was hers' because I won the whale for her, and the bear came with it, and gave her both. She handed me the green bear back. 'You can keep it,' she said, 'as a thank you for winning me the one I wanted!' The smile she gave me was bright enough to have lit up the darkest trench in the ocean._

_I felt good about that... But my growing nerves had been getting the better of me. Ruri noticed I seemed anxious all of a sudden, and offered me usage of her phone to contact Yayaka so we could meet them again. She said she'd walk with me too, so I didn't feel alone..._

* * *

Ruri's a kind girl, who accepted me and Yuyu to her school, and made us feel welcome right away. She introduced me to some of the others there, and I found it easy to become friends with them. Out of all of the elementry schools Asclepius sent us to, it's probably my favourite. I'd be sad when I had to leave it... It's a shame that time may have come sooner than originally planned.

_I hope Yuyu will be okay there without me. _She always seemed to struggle when it came to other people. Asclepius made her for combat, with an eye for weak points. Mostly physical weak points, but it didn't stop her from hitting the targets of mental weak points too. She didn't realise at first what she was doing, and ended up becoming a bully of sorts by mistake. She understood how she appeared to be acting after some time, but tended to avoid people, possibly afraid of the same thing happening again. Likewise, classmates didn't seem to like to approach her either. They wondered how I could be related to someone who was so cold, when I appeared to be nothing like that. I never quite knew how to react to those situations. I tried to keep Yuyu company at school when I could though. Being alone can't be a nice experience...

I looked at Papika with that thought. She was staring down at TT-392, who was looking up at her questioningly. Hidaka and Nyunyu had left the room a while ago, so it was just me, her, and the robot. TT-392 made some questioning whistles towards her, and Papika replied, but never more than one or two words. Eventually the robot left her alone, and wheeled out the room, probably to go and find Hidaka and Nyunyu. At that, Papika... seemed to retreat into herself. She hunched over a little further, and wrapped her arms around herself, as if trying to seek comfort.

"Are you... okay?" I asked. It was difficult trying to talk. My body only seemed capable of holding enough breath for one or two words, before running out.

Papika showed no surprise at me talking to her. "I'm fine..." she mumbled. Her voice suggested she was anything but.

"Yayaka... told me... about the... attack." I said. "She blames... herself..."

Papika was silent.

"Do you... Want to... talk?" Might have been silly to ask. Silence from the pink-haired girl would suggest that wasn't the case at all, but I wanted to see how she was. I admit, I felt awkward. I've never had a chance to talk to Papika alone like this before. Although I've been with Flip Flap for a short while now, along with Yuyu, Nyunyu and Yayaka, she may not be comfortable talking to me about how she feels... if she's even comfortable talking about it at all.

Maybe when Asclepius created me, they intended me to be a support unit for combat only, but I think they unintentionally made it so I felt the need to try and support someone, regardless of the situation. I didn't know Papika well, but seeing her so… still, when she was usually energetic was worrying.

Although, if she had no wish to talk about it, I had no idea how I could help her with the situation. The must I could do otherwise, would be to distract her, which would be difficult to achieve in my current state. Breathing problems would make it hard to carry a conversation anyway, and I could do little else to help… However, as I looked to my side, I caught sight of my breathing equipment from Pure Illusion sitting on one of the tables nearby. Annoyingly, my interface on my new equipment was text-only, but it was enough to give me an idea for future communication without use of speech.

Standing up from the table was a little harder than I would have liked it to be. My limbs felt heavier than I remember, and it was a bit of a struggle to remain standing. I assume the dizzy feeling is from a struggle to take in oxygen from the air around me at least…

My mask wasn't too far away though, and it was easy to slip over my head. I removed the breathing tube from the skull mask and I pressed one of the teeth, to activate the visor.

It appeared that I had a message from Yayaka, sent a second ago from Pure Illusion. 'Hey Toto, I keep seeing a weird red dot on my visor. Do you think you could examine it?' and attached was a very long string of numbers and letters. I frowned as I looked at it. There was an awful lot of text to scroll through... possibly enough to fill a few novels... It was irritating. Before my head injury I probably could have read and registered it all in maybe a minute and have it deciphered in a just few more, but in my current condition, that wasn't possible. I feel that being in Pure Illusion so long, helping Yayaka fight the dragon, may have impacted my ability further. I couldn't put a hand to my head, and feel any hard lumps that would be beneath my skull, but it was possible the crystalisation process has spread to there, too. It was probably lucky my thoughts were still coherant.

I sent a quick reply to Yayaka saying I estimate it would take me one day to examine it and report my findings back, before pressing one of the teeth on my mask and activating a screen-projection program.

I may have complaints about the lack of graphics and details on my new equipment, but Hidaka and Yuyu had made sure it was still thought-controlled, which I was very grateful for. What I wanted to say to Papika appeared on the wall in front of us, almost as quickly as I could think the sentences.

"_Would it be easier if I could talk to you like this?" _I waved a hand in front of Papika's face, and pointed at the wall in front of us. Her face continued to hold an expression of looking sad, or lost, and upon seeing my message, a hint of confusion, but I noticed her focus remained on the question mark at the end of the sentence, more than the rest of the words themselves. She seemed to want to reply, but didn't know what I was asking. I am aware, much like Asclepius, that Flip Flap could probably have manipulated, or worked their way around forms to get Papika a place at Cocona and Yayaka's current school, so I began to wonder at that point, how well Papika could read. Maybe it could be considered mean to conduct this experiment out of curiosity, but I erased my current message, which was typed mostly in Kanji, and wrote another one entirely in Hirigana.

"_I can write like this, if you can't read Kanji. Would it be easier for you to talk to me if I replied in writing?"_

Papika remained silent, although she seemed to show understanding of what I said this time, rather than focusing on the fact I was asking a question, and not being able to work out what I was asking.

"_Talking can help. It may not help right away, or may not help at all, but it can. If you think it might, and you can tell me, then I would like to ask you to try and speak to me about it."_

Silence stretched out in the empty space between us. It surprised me when Papika finally spoke.

"It didn't hurt me, or do anything bad..." She said. "It might have done, but my scream seemed to scare it away..."

It didn't attack, but Papika still seemed bothered by the encounter. I would have thought that strange, but,_ "Did it look like someone we know?" _

Papika remained still. Silent. But then she nodded, and started to speak. "Did you see it up close?"

_"No," _was all I typed. I could have gone into more detail, but I didn't know how familiar Papika was with technology, so I left her to speak.

"I've never seen eyes like that... Red, like fire, and burning with hate... And a twisted smile, that looked like the corners of its mouth were pulling away from the face... It looked like a demon..." She cowered a little as she spoke about it. "I know the real person would never hurt me, and I trust her with my life... But if you saw the shadow like I did..." Tears started to creep down her cheeks, and she curled into a ball, as if to try and hide her face. I couldn't blame her. I saw the shadowy person from a distance, and the readings my visor gave were enough to scare me too.

"You're brave... telling me... your story... Thank you…" I spoke out loud, partly because Papika was no longer looking at the wall to read, but mostly because I wanted her to hear the sincerity in my voice. "Must admit... didn't think... you'd tell... me..."

I didn't think Papika would say anything in her current state, but she did. "I didn't think I would either," she confessed. "I know we fought when you were a part of Asclepius, but things have changed since then. I don't know you very well, Toto, but you don't seem like a bad person... Besides, you're Cocona's brother." A small smile appeared on her face, through her tears, as she spoke about Cocona. I thought she'd stop speaking there, but she had something else to say, and she turned her blue eyes to meet my red as she spoke. "I think of you as family, too."

Her words were unexpected, but they made me smile.

Suddenly, there were footsteps rapidly approaching, and Cocona appeared in the doorway, out of breath.

"Papika!" She panted, approaching the pink-haired girl, before wrapping her gently in a hug. "I'm sorry I was gone so long! I'm here now…"

"Cocona!" Papika called her name, and returned the hug, with enthusiasm, and a warm smile. Cocona pulled away a moment later.

"You seem better..." Cocona said, sounding a little confused.

"I feel a little better," Papika said, "Toto helped me."

"Toto?" Cocona glanced at me quickly, still a little wide-eyed with worry over Papika, but the emotion seemed to grow a little again as she looked at me. "Are you sure you should be standing?"

"Unknown…" I said, before sitting down. I probably should have sat down earlier, but my concern about Papika erased any thoughts I had that told me that would have been a good idea. It felt good to sit again, though. Maybe I was pushing myself a little too much. Cocona seemed to relax a little.

"Yuyu and Yayaka both have a message for you," she said. "They wish you a speedy recovery from your sickness."

I smiled. I was about to ask a question, but Papika beat me to it.

"A message from Yayaka? _And _Yuyu?"

Cocona nodded, and pulled a note out of her skirt pocket, showing it to Papika. "Yayaka chose to stay in Pure Illusion on purpose. Yuyu got worried about her, because she didn't have any food, and wanted to go to Pure Illusion to give her some. I went with her, to make sure she got there safely, but she wanted to stay behind with Yayaka, so I came back alone."

I found it strange that the news made Papika grin, "I don't think that's the only reason Yuyu wanted to go to Pure Illusion." She wriggled on the spot with excitement, "I think she has a crush on Yayaka!"

_Yuyu has a crush on Yayaka? _Thinking about it, that could explain her recent fondness.

As if Cocona came to the same conclusion Papika did, she smiled too. "I think you're right about that," she said "Either way, it's good to know Yayaka isn't alone out there anymore." Cocona's face fell, "Yayaka had a message for you too, Papika. She said she's sorry she wasn't there to protect you, and she's sorry for how she treated you when she was a part of Asclepius." Cocona's voice seemed to shake a bit. "Yayaka also said she can understand if you hate her, and she means it when she says she's sorry."

The smile on Papika's face slowly began to die as Cocona passed on that message. The haunted look she had on her face returned, and she looked down at the ground. Cocona put her hands on Papika's shoulders and kissed the top of the pink-haired girl's head, in an attempt to comfort her. I admit, I felt upset hearing the message too. I regret to say I don't know much about Yayaka, despite working with her for so long, but even though Cocona was just delivering the message… it hurt to hear Yayaka's words, even if they weren't directed at me.

Cocona spoke hurriedly to Papika, as it trying to calm her down faster, "I told her that I don't think she's done anything wrong, but I'd pass the message on for her anyway."

If Papika heard Cocona say that, she didn't respond. Or not directly to that, Papika spoke again, but what she said was, "Yayaka…" and a couple of tears glinted in the light, as they fell from her face. Cocona wrapped her arms around Papika again, and held her until the pink-haired girl stopped crying. I felt a little awkward sitting there, but it was as if I wasn't in the room at all. They were with each other, and as far as they were concerned, no one else existed to them at that moment.

When Papika calmed down, Cocona pulled away, and offered her a little smile. Papika sniffed, but slowly managed to return it, which earned her a quick kiss from Cocona. It was then that they both seemed to remember I was still there. Cocona blushed, a little embarrassed, and coughed, before speaking to me.

"I'd like to go back to Pure Illusion and help Yayaka," she said. "Yuyu said she'd work on making some armour for me and Papika, like you and the others have, but I don't know if she's even begun to work on it."

"Will work… in her place…" I said.

"I… want to go with you, Cocona." Papika said, but her voice wavered badly. At first, I thought it was because she was still upset from crying, but as I watched the look that fell over her face, I realised it had nothing to do with that. Although the shadow in Pure Illusion hadn't attacked her outright, she seemed to be pretty shaken by the experience.

"Is that... wise?" I asked.

"Papika, are you sure you're okay to do something like that?"

I was half-expecting her to say 'of course!' and start preparing right away, but she didn't. Instead, she just sat there. Her words showed willlingness to help, but everything else suggested she wanted nothing more to do with Pure Illusion.

"I said I would be there for her if she needed me..." She turned to Cocona. "I'm scared to go back, but it sounds like she's hurting inside, and I want to help her." Papika's voice seemed to shake a little less with each word she spoke, determination trying to push through her fear. "Besides..." She continued, smiling now, "I made a promise I'd see lots of new worlds with you, didn't I?"

It wasn't long before Cocona was smiling at Papika's words. I, too, was smiling as I listened to her talking.

"Papika... You are-" I couldn't finish my sentence, even though I wanted to, as I launched into a coughing fit. My lungs were trying to expel the amorphous that had formed on them and inside them, but that was an impossiblity, and soon my chest began to hurt a lot. It was a little like I was trying to cough up barbed wire. Papika and Cocona both looked worried, and like they wanted to help me, but they didn't know how. Thankfully I gained control of my breathing shortly after, and clicked one of the teeth on my mask to activate the screen-projection feature again.

_"Am fine. I promise. Papika, you are brave wanting to go back to Pure Illusion again. I admire you for that. Cocona, how did you and Yuyu get to Pure Illusion and find Yayaka so quickly?"_

Cocona looked a little mystified at my new form of communication, but she replied after a second. "Yuyu ran to Asclepius' base to get some of their rations. She used the portal, so it would take her to the world Yayaka was in."

Asclepius tracker data entered into portal... Makes sense. It's fortunate that Yayaka gave the command to save the portal after all...

_"If you can find a safe world, you can go to Pure Illusion with Papika. Try and build up courage and confidence again, in a safe environment."_

At that point, Cocona pulled out a notebook from her skirt pocket and turned to a page, and handed it to me. "We can use this, can't we?"

I recognised Yuyu's handwriting... And when I recognised the coordinates for the world that Yuyu had remembered, I found myself amused. I remember Yayaka being fond of that world, and it appeared that Yuyu was too... Not that I could blame them. It was a nice place. If I ever got the chance to show Ruri Pure illusion, it would probably be the first world I would think of, to show her.

_"Yes, you can use those to get to Pure Illusion. I can work the Asclepius portal for you."_

Any enthusiasm about the idea Papika could muster seemed to fail, as she read the word 'Asclepius'. I thought it was an odd reaction, and it must have shown on my face, as Cocona explained quickly that Papika was Papikana from the old Asclepius experiments with Mimi, and had been reborn in Pure Illusion. It was a strange story, but it answered a lot of questions I would have had otherwise. When Cocona was finished, she took Papika's hand, and gave it a squeeze.

"I know it might be scary for you to go there again, but I'll be right there with you. We both want to help Yayaka, right?" She asked. Papika seemed uncertain for a moment, but slowly, the conflict of anxiety and determination on her face began to show the latter as the winner, and she returned Cocona's gaze.

"Yayaka's important to me! She might have said she wanted to fight alone in her note, but Pure Illusion's dangerous! We don't know how long she and Yuyu will be in there, or what they're doing, but if it's really bad, then they could die, and I don't want to lose them!"

Cocona gave the pink-haired girl a gentle, encouraging smile, and squeezed her hand again. "I feel the same way. I know it'll be difficult for you, but I'll stay by your side. If you want me to hold your hand the entire time, if it makes you feel safer, then I'll never let go!"

The smile beneath my mask was probably the largest one I've ever given. I found my admiration for the two girls growing. I didn't want to ruin the moment, but _"Even if it's a safe world, it is best if your Flip Flap armour is completed, before you go to Pure Illusion., just in case something goes wrong. I will ask Hidaka for help."_

"Hidaka!" Cocona called his name suddenly. "I had a message to give to him too!" She took her hand away from Papika's and gave the pink-haired girl a hug. "I'm sorry, Papika, I'll be back soon, but I promised Yuyu I'd give him a message too." She turned to me. "Do you know where he is?"

_"One of his workshops. Unsure which one."_

"Okay, thank you!" She left the room in a bit of a flurry to find him. Papika was smiling at the doorway Cocona had just gone through, for a little while.

"I should go with her," she said. "Hidaka has a lot of workshops, and Cocona might not know about all of them yet. Some of them are hard to find." I was a little startled when she approached me, instead of heading for the door, but it appeared she had something she wanted to tell me. "Thanks again for listening to me, Toto." She said, as she leaned in, to give me a hug. "You're a good brother."

With that, she left me alone in the medical room... Although I only remained there for a moment, as I needed to get moving as well. I wanted to get to work on examining the data Yayaka send me, and also to finish creation of Papika and Cocona's Pure Illusion gear, so I could help them achieve their goal quicker.

After all, Yayaka and Yuyu are important to me, too. I may not be able to assist them in Pure Illusion any more directly, but I can at least try my best to support and aid them all the way from Flip Flap.

* * *

_Authors note: Sorry for the short chapter this time, and also for what I feel is another sudden ending. Is it odd to see things from Toto's POV? I feel like I had a few things I needed to establish would be going on back at Flip Flap, so I felt the need to add in a little peek as to what was going on there. Honestly, it might be the only time I even have Toto's POV in the fic... I say that, and yet I just thought of another point I may need to bring up... I shall save that for the future though!_

_I have it in my head (or in my fic at least) that Toto is the more sociable of the twins, and is better with people in general, what with being made as a support unit. He's developed speech better than his sister, and is better at socialising and understanding people, whereas Yuyu... isn't. I hope this makes sense and doesn't seem too out of place for people reading, that Toto is so vastly different in terms of POV._

_Also, like I said before, these next few parts of my fic might take a while to work out, so it might be a while before they're posted. If you're still reading/have made it this far, I hope you're enjoying the story and thanks for reading!_


	15. Chapter 14

_Authors note: Still trying to work a large part of the story out... but I have enough for a short chapter, so I'll post this stuff at least. _

* * *

_Yuyu_

Didn't want to let go of Yayaka's hand, but when arrived, Yayaka tugged herself loose and looked around. I copied.

Blue. Green. Teal. Cyan. Were underground, or in caverns. Surfaces gleamed. Could potentially blind if bright enough light shone in right areas. Walls appeared smooth, but showed hints of roughness with sparse imperfections in forms of cracks. If struck, could collapse tunnels. Few locations could provide that result. Looked at ground, wary of last world. Didn't appear to be weak floor. Glad about that... But unusual markings in the ground... Knelt down to investigate.

Tracks. As if stabbed and cut into ground, causing uneven surface. Slowly moved real hand over them. Sharp bumps. Travel without shoes would result in damaged feet.

_Feet... _Had opportunity to check injured leg. Did so. Pulled up trouser leg and removed shark-made bandages and saw wound. Teeth marks. Deep. Looked painful, but wasn't. Moved real hand next to it. Saw red marks on my fingernails...

Red, but not blood. Blood doesn't gleam like oil. _Might be reverting to amorphous like Toto... _Put real hand to necklace amorphous. _If it gets worse, may have to retreat, but don't want to leave Yayaka..._

Yayaka sniffed. "Does it smell like smoke to you?"

Stood up and inhaled. Faint smell of smoke. Nodded to answer Yayaka's question.

"Think there's a fire?" She asked. Sounded a little worried. I had another sniff of the air.

"Unsure. Would guess unlikel-" Stopped talking. Heard a crackle. Not like fire, though. Sounded like shoes kicking loose stones. Yayaka was alert instantly, head pointing towards source of the noise. Looked towards me and gestured with her hand for me to follow. We ducked behind a thick spike of rock. Would likely be out of sight of anything around.

Single crackle suddenly sounded numerous. Car tyres on a gravel road. Heard clicking too. Slight sound of squishing. _Not alone here... _

Seconds before dark shape rounded a corner. Couldn't entirely make out shape, but Yayaka seemed alarmed. Shoved down on my head, hard, keeping me out of sight. She crept around me, keeping track of enemy. Constant clacking of movement. Owner of noise sounded... long. Very long. Approximately sixty feet at an estimate. Became unsettled by continuous noises. Thought it wouldn't end... But eventually did.

Yayaka waited a while after it's departure before saying "I think it's gone..." She activated her headgear, trying to determine where to go next. Assume that was case, however she mumbled "Crapping hell..." to herself. Then seemed to become aware I was around again. She said to follow her afterwards.

Thought it was strange at first Yayaka didn't disable headgear, but soon realised would have been a bad idea. Could see weak points in the tunnels (could probably have closed off a few of them as we walked), but not the way through them. Would likely have gotten lost without Yayaka's visor to guide us. Walls were different shades of blues and greens. Cerulean, jade, sapphire... But easy to lose sense of direction. If alone, probably would have destroyed tunnels previously walked through to mark path. Could have resulted in trapping self in a tunnel, or attracted attention of giant creatures...

Probably best you can't get to Pure Illusion alone.

Heard wet chittering sounding from distant tunnel. Yayaka gave silent command with hand to stay still. Did so. Noise faded. Motioned to get going again.

Continued like that for a long time. Was getting bored. Swirls of colour in walls nice, but repetitive.

"I think this red dot's messing with us..." Yayaka mumbled. "I feel like we're going in circles..."

"Mark path?" I suggested. Had considered doing that previously after all, but didn't want to act without orders.

"I don't think that'd be a good idea." Yayaka said.

Confused. "Why?"

"Just trust me, if one of them works out what we've been doing and follows us..." She didn't finish the sentence.

_SCREEEEEEEEEEE!_

A loud screech nearby. Yayaka spun around and cursed. Quickly grabbed hold of my shoulders and shoved me forcefully to ground. She knelt over me, acting as a barrier.

Wasn't long before another creature was in the tunnels. Click-click-click-click… constant, fast. Like gunfire. Was hard to see from position on floor, but glance revealed lots of thick stabbing legs. Shifted head upwards, but Yayaka tried to block my eyes. Most of my vision was obscured, but could still see a little. Segmented, shining black body. Slimy. Winding. Wriggling, as hundreds of legs carried it along. Rattling, clicking…

Realised with horror what it was. Why Yayaka tried to cover my eyes.

_Centipede. Giant centipede… Giant bug. _Couldn't see head, but could imagine. _Snapping pincers for mouth. Soulless eyes… _Size of creature easily filled half the tunnel in height. Felt my skin begin to prickle. _Could decapitate in a single bite… _Began to shake despite warm tunnels and heated armour.

_Giant centipede… Possible other insects too… Shining exoskeleton. Smooth. Alien… Spiders… Long hooked feet… Hairy legs… Injecting poison… _

_No. No no no…_

Loud ear-splitting screech. Different to first centipede. _A second?! _Wanted to move. Get up. Run away. Couldn't move. Frozen. Shaking.

_Terrified…_

* * *

_Yayaka_

I noticed Yuyu had begun to tremble, and that was when I realised my attempt to try and keep the identity of the monsters a secret had failed. I wanted to try and reassure her somehow, but I felt that if I made a noise then I would have attracted the attention of the centipede, and I _really _didn't want to do that. It was smaller than the first one that walked by us, sure, but it was still pretty damn big. Hell, I wasn't scared of insects, but seeing something that big and up close, I could understand why Yuyu hated bugs. I wish my heart would stop thudding so hard in my chest. at the rate it was going, it would probably be seconds before the centipede could hear it and we'd be hunted.

_REEEEEEEEE!_

A nightmarish shriek ripped through the tunnels… And it was louder than the first one. It sounded a lot like it belonged to another centipede. _And if either of them sees us…_

_SCREEEEE!_

_REEEEEE!_

It sounded like they'd run into each other, and it wasn't longbefore I could hear them fighting. Their large bodies thrashing and slamming into the sides of the blue caverns. _We should move. Now! _

I didn't really want to get up, but if they're fighting, then in theory, they'd be far too busy to notice a couple of tiny black shapes trying to run away, right? I looked down at Yuyu and tried to whisper as quietly as I could to her, while being able to be heard over the noise, "Come on!" I took the wrist of her metal arm and tugged sharply, trying to get her to stand up, or at least kneel. There was no response.

Do you know how hard it is, not to shout at someone to give them a command, when they won't friggin' listen, and you're seconds away from being crushed? I know Yuyu's probably paralysed with fear, but _for frags_ _sake! _"Get up, Yuyu, or we both die here!" I yanked her arm again, harshly this time, while trying to keep quiet and get her to move. _She shouldn't have come with me. She's just gonna slow me down! _

BOOM! Splinters of blue stone began to rain from above, as one of the centipede's bodies crashed into the wall overhead. I glanced upwards and saw the second centipede, towering over the first. Its cavernous maw was open, and ready to take a chunk out of the smaller one. _We have to get out of here, NOW. _In my desperation to get Yuyu out of here, I slapped her shoulder, which finally got a response from her. Wide, red eyes looked up at me, devoid of hope. _But she moved._

"Come on, Yuyu!" I gave up trying to be quiet, and yelled as loud as I could, hoping both of the centipedes didn't think to look at us. Yuyu seemed to snap out of her fear a little bit, just enough to allow me to pull her to safety, as a writhing mass fell in the exact spot we were a couple of seconds ago.

It was hard to ignore the sounds of ripping and chomping, even though we were now making our escape. Of flesh being torn out of the thick shell. Squishing and crunching as one body was being ripped apart… It echoed behind us, and didn't seem to go away for a long time.

There was no real direction I had in mind as we ran, all I know is I wanted to get as far away from there as possible. Eventually, my legs started to feel like lead, with how hard I'd been running (that and dragging Yuyu behind me wasn't too easy either), and we had to stop for a second. I panted, trying to get my breath back.

"You know…" I said between gasps. "I think I can understand… why you hate bugs now…"

I tried to offer a reassuring smile, to her, but she didn't show any signs of seeing it. If anything, she looked just as haunted as Papika did when she returned to Flip Flap with me after the shadow's attack. Even though Yuyu willingly chose to come along with me, I felt guilty for not trying to force her back home anyway. _Especially when the first damn world we went to had giant bugs in it…_

"I'm sorry for slapping you," I said, feeling guilty for hitting her. "I shouldn't have done it, but I couldn't think of any other way to get you to snap out of it."

Yuyu continued to stare blankly at me, again, showing no signs of hearing me. _First, I'm not there to defend Papika, now I've gotten Yuyu in the same sort of condition, and I physically struck her…_ I hung my head"I keep messing things up…"

I stood there, starting to get lost in my thoughts, when all of a sudden, I felt something tug the sleeve of my Flip Flap armour gently. A white and red metal arm. My gaze trailed along the arm to meet their owner's eyes. Amongst all that fear, was also a tiny hint of concern. I felt a little pull in the bond between us.

_She can hear me… I guess she's just too scared to talk… _It was only a small gesture, of her tugging my sleeve, but it reminded me of one of Cocona's parting messages for us. _'Please take care of each other.' _I took a deep breath and stood up, straighter. _I'm gonna try, Cocona. _

"I'm fine, Yuyu," I said, which was a complete lie. _But I need to be strong for her. _I clicked my visor on to see if there were any signs of the red dot around. I spun around a little to locate it, and found it. "If it wasn't for the fact the thing we're chasing is still in this world, I'd order you to get us out of here, right away…"

I still had no idea what the red dot was, but I felt like it was calling me. Maybe taunting me, too. _'I'm in a world your companion hates, but you still have to follow me!' _sorta thing. It definitely seemed like it was sentient, rather than just a stationary thing, and if it changed to another world which either of us would end up hating, it would confirm my suspicions that it did indeed have something to do with the shadow. _But at least that means we're on the right track…_

"This way," I said. I made sure to look behind me to make sure Yuyu was with me. She seemed scared still, but was taking tentative steps to follow me, which was an improvement. "I'll try and keep an eye out for more bugs so we won't get caught like that again, okay?"

Her head tilted downwards a fraction in a nod, and we continued on our way.

* * *

Although we heard distant chitters and clicking, we didn't run into another bug. Quite a few of them seemed to show up on my visor, so at least it was easy to try and guide the two of us through the least-infested tunnels. It didn't stop us from walking through an insect nest at one point. It was just a pile of albino, sightless bugs, all scrabbling and clambering on top of each other, but it made my skin crawl just to look at it. Thankfully none of them came towards us. It was a good thing I kept checking behind me for Yuyu, as I'd almost accidentally left her behind in that room. She didn't seem to register the fact I was walking off without her, her eyes were too busy being glued to the bugs. She was shaking on the spot with fear, her mind probably having a million thoughts at once, and going into overload. I took her hand, gently saying "It's just me," so she wouldn't freak out, and lead her away from the room.

After some time, there was a beam of light shining through one of the tunnels. It was damn bright, even though my visor screen was pretty dark anyway, I still felt the need to cover my eyes with my hands, because it hurt to look at. _But it looked like an exit._ Yuyu didn't seem bothered by the light at all. If anything, she seemed to like it, as she seemed to stand up a little straighter.

Well, I had good news for her, too, "According to my visor, if we go through here, it'll take us outside, and that's where the red dot is too."

Yuyu let go of my hand, and was off like a rocket. I wasn't sure I could blame her. I wasn't claustrophobic, hell I'd been crammed into the cockpit of a mecha where I barely had room to move, but being stuck in those tunnels for so long was starting to drive me friggin' nuts.

I was about to follow Yuyu out into the open, but she stopped, at what looked like the edge of a very big fall, which I'd just about managed to avoid going over myself... Honestly I didn't know whether to be happy about that or not, I mean I wasn't falling to my death, but still, when I saw all those bones...

Much like the insects in the caverns, they seemed impossibly large. Ribcages looked like bridges that could span the distance between islands, brown and fossilised with age. There were skulls of every shape and form you could think of, all hollowed out, with eye sockets that you could probably cram fifty elephants inside with no trouble, and still have room for more. In some places, there were... what I'd guess used to be hands at some point, sprouting upwards like tiny plant shoots, as if things had become trapped within the tides of bone and had attempted to escape, only to become another addition to the land itself... And I know that for a fact. My visor was still up, and it had outlined every single bone below us. _Everything _was bone. There wasn't a single patch of dirt or sand or rock anywhere to be seen...

The only mercy I could think of, was that none of the bones seemed to be burnt or charred. If that was the case, I probably would have shut down, right then and there, just like Yuyu had earlier. I wasn't sure if I should consider it lucky that it was only bad enough to make me tremble where I stood.

It took a little while for me to realise that it wasn't just skeletal hands jutting out from the ground, trying to reach the sky. I could see structures that looked like termite mounds crossed with cactuses, like strange trees, dotted all over jumbled landscape of bone. I tried to focus on those, rather than about the many corpses that littered the land below. _I can't become one of them... And I can't let that happen to Yuyu either... I'm not going to let her die, especially not in a world of bugs..._

I gulped, trying to force down a lump in my throat that was forming, trying not to think about how the bones were picked clean and in plain sight in the first place.

I could feel fear trying to build in me. _I can't let it win... _Without even thinking about it, I'd reached for Yuyu's hand and taken it. Her real one, going by the fact although it was cold, that it felt like skin, rather than metal. I gave it a light squeeze, to try and remind myself that I wasn't alone.

_Yuyu can't be dealing with this too well either... _

I glanced at her, and saw her red eyes wide open, unblinking at everything around us. She wasn't trembling, like I was, but the sheer terror she was experiencing was clear in her body langauge. She stood, rigid. Frozen. Anxiety spiked in me for a second, and I thought the dragon egg amorphous had failed, and she'd turned into a statue next to me, and I hadn't even noticed, so I tugged her hand. Her arm wobbled, which I was relieved to find. _She hasn't frozen on me... _But as I moved her hand, I noticed something red on her fingernails.

"Have you been bleeding?" I asked. Somehow, my voice didn't have any tremors in it, which was probably another weird miracle. I knew that anything this world made me feel would probably catch up to me later, but I took the fact I was still able to talk as a good sign... for now.

Yuyu blinked and her head whipped around quickly to our connected hands, which she stared at for a second, before wrenching hers away. "...fine..." was all I could hear her say, before her head turned back to the world below. _She can still respond. That's something... But if she keeps looking down at that, it's not gonna do her any good. _

Maybe it was a little harsh of me, but I grabbed her chin, and jerked her head towards me, so she had no choice but to look at me. Red eyes flicked to my purple, before looking away again. _But I have her attention. _

"Yuyu. I'm scared too, but we need to move. The red dot is above us. We'll have to get out of here and climb up to get to it. It'll be a Hole that'll take us out of here." That last part was a complete lie. I had no fraggin' clue what the hell the red dot was, or if it could get us out of here, but I had to say something to persuade Yuyu staying here wasn't a good idea.

_Click-click-click-click-click-click-click-CLICK-CLICK..._

I glanced back into the tunnels behind us and saw some souless eyes reflecting light back at us. I couldn't see a single leg or mandible, but it was enough to force me to get going.

"Sorry about this!" I said to Yuyu, before shoving her roughly out of the tunnel, into the open, and swiftly fired a grappling wire after, to catch her, and stepped out into the open myself, firing another wire to the outside structure of the... termite tree thing... we'd just been running around inside.

I felt a heavy weight catch and pull, and I knew Yuyu had been caught successfully, which made me feel relief for one sweet moment, before everything else I was feeling flooded back to me. My other wire had caught the side of the termite tree, and seemed to be holding.

The outer surface of the tree seemed to be knotted and gnarled in shape, so it seemed to have natural hand and foot holds, which was one positive. I looked down at Yuyu to see she'd managed to swing herself to the side of the tree too, and looked like she was ready to climb. Her eyes were still wide open, but I noticed at some point, that she'd taken her sword from her belt and had slammed it into the side of the tree, to act as a climbing aid. Her metal hand was clamped around the handle of it, tightly.

_Okay... We can do this... _

"We've just gotta climb up now, Yuyu, then we'll be out of here!" I called down to her, mostly to try and encourage her, but partly to try and talk myself into a state where I could function without wanting to explode.

My hand shook as I took it away from the surface and tried to pull the two of us upwards. Yuyu was heavy, which didn't quite help, and neither did that the surface of the rocks under my hands was pretty hot, having been out in the glaring daylight… I felt like a world like this should have been clouded over, or have some weird sky, to reflect the dismal state of everything beneath it… but nope. It was just a plain sunny day, with a sky as bright and crisp as one you'd find on a clear winter morning. In a way the fact the sky appeared so _normal _was kinda unsettling…

_You're meant to be heading up, Yayaka, not admiring the scenery. _I grit my teeth, mentally scolding myself for getting distracted and tried to continue climbing. The weight I felt as I tried going upwards seemed to have lessened, and I heard a rhythmic scraping and thumping as Yuyu withdrew her sword from the termite tree and slammed it back in.

_Shing… THUNK! Shing… THUNK!_

The tunnel that lead outside was in the trunk of the tree, so thankfully, we wouldn't really need to clamber around or over and of the 'branches.'

_Shing… THUNK! _

Just one nice, simple direction…

_Shing… THUNK! _

And then we're out of here…

_Shing… THUNK! Click-click-click…_

…That's not Yuyu's sword…

_clickclickclickCLICKCLICKCLICK…_

_We're being followed!_

"Keep going! Don't look down!" I shouted to Yuyu. I had no idea if that was a good command to give, but I thought I could hear Yuyu's rhythm slowing down, and I wanted to try and encourage her.

But could we outrun sixty-foot long centipedes? Probably not, but what else could we do? That red dot wasn't going anywhere, and something about it seemed to be calling to me…

"Yayaka…"

I flinched when I heard the voice, before I realised it was just Yuyu below me.

"Yeah, I can hear them too, Yuyu…" Hell, my visor showed quite a few little yellow arrows below me with numbers representing the distance between us and our attackers… And those numbers were getting smaller, fast.

"Yayaka…"

"Yuyu, if I could grapple both of us up there, I would have done so already," I growled, feeling frustrated, "but with the both of us together, we're far too heavy to do that…" My hand slipped, scraping against the tree's surface, leaving a patch of blood. _Damn it! _"This would be so much easier if Toto was here…" I grumbled, trying to force myself to keep going, and ignore the pain in my hand.

"Yayaka… Can't…"

_For frag's sake! _"Yuyu—"

Ignoring my own damn advice, I looked down, and immediately wished I hadn't. Not only because I swung my head, so fast around, that I almost gave myself vertigo, but because of the waves of thrashing, skittering giant insects... Numerous enough now for their cries to deafen us, screeching for our bones to join the endless expanse of them below...

But worse than that was Yuyu. I thought the fact she'd used her sword as a climbing aid was a smart idea… At least until I caught sight of the metal arm, she'd been holding her sword in. Normally, it was a bright, shining white, with red accents, but now it was covered in thick, amber sap, which bled from the tree. I could see Yuyu, trying to wrench her shoulder away from the tree, and she couldn't.

She was stuck.

And the bugs were coming closer.

_What can we do?!_

The first idea that came to mind was using a rocket lower down on the base of the tree, and hope I could blast it into oblivion, but I doubted just one rocket would be enough to do that. Hell, even if I used all of my remaining rockets it probably wouldn't be enough to take the tree down... Not without Toto's ability to target, these things... Well I say that, Yuyu could probably tell me where to aim exactly to destroy the tree if I wanted, but chances are that'd mean she'd have to be lowered down or be able to hover a fair distance away to get a good look, and neither of those were possible right now.

_Maybe I should have told her to destroy the tunnels after all, then maybe we wouldn't be in this situation..._ I wasn't even sure if Yuyu's new smaller arm would be strong enough to do such a thing... _Not that she can use it anyway, it's all gummed up from sap..._

Neither of our weapons would be any good in this situation. That red dot wasn't getting any closer, either. I got the feeling, the only way out of this situation was to use a Hole to get out of here.

"Yuyu! Get a Hole ready, I'm gonna drop down next to you, and we'll escape through it!"

I didn't wait for any reply or confirmation, and retracted the wire I'd originally aimed upwards, to catch at the side of the tree. This time, I aimed it downwards, closer to Yuyu. I gave it a second before tugging it, to make sure it was secure...

And then I jumped off.

It wasn't the first time I was falling blindly through the air, but it didn't scare me any less doing it this time, than I did others. I mean, yeah, you could argue that this time there was actually a floor I could land on, rather than just an endless void (which I'd probably splatter against if I actually hit), but there were also quite a few bugs that could probably stretch out and reach me if I fell too far down.

It was pretty difficult to see as I was tumbling through the air, but I tried to try and find Yuyu, and was glad to see her fiddling around with a Hole device one-handed. It was hard to tell, but I think her hand was shaking. _Don't drop it..._

"Just get it working!" I shouted down to her. I looked away from Yuyu and back towards the bugs. Being able to see things from a different perspective revealed that they were a lot closer than I thought. At the rate I was falling, and the bugs were skittering towards us, it was hard to say who'd get to Yuyu first...

And if it was me, if any of the bugs would be able to follow us to Pure Illusion.

"Damn it..." I mumbled, as I put a hand to one of my rockets. I really didn't want to use one, but I didn't want anything following us to our next destination, and Yuyu couldn't use her noise grenade, if her only available hand was working on our only way out of here.

I fired one off, and tried aiming for a space between Yuyu and the writhing tide of bugs, hoping my rocket hold them up enough so they wouldn't follow us, just as I landed next to her.

_BOOM!_

The explosion shook the tree, and I could see whisps from the cloud of black smoke surround us. At the same time, Yuyu slammed the Hole device against the side of the tree, and a deep black portal appeared where we were clinging to the tree.

I wasn't too sure, but before we both fell through the Hole, I thought I saw the red dot fade away. It might have just been that way normally, but the timing struck me as too coincidental, and I began to wonder if it somehow knew we'd left this world behind...

* * *

_Authors note: Fun fact! It's almost been a year (will have been a year on Monday, the 20th April) since I started writing my Flip Flappers fanfics! I wouldn't quite have expected to write at least 230k words total, but I won't complain, it's been kinda nice to write an all big story again. I hope people have been enjoying reading it. Feel free to comment if you have!_


	16. Chapter 15

_Yayaka_

I just about managed to deactivate my visor, a split second before my face crashed into the floor of the next world. I'm not sure if the impact could have broken it, but I'd be a little happier knowing it was still in one piece, instead of being a bunch of glass shards in another world. I pushed myself up, noting that some of the smoke from my rocket in the last world had followed us through, weaving around me and Yuyu, but it faded soon enough. Thankfully, the smoke was the only thing that had come with us through the world. There wasn't a giant insect to be seen. Good.

The smoke made me worry a little though. Toto seemed to have breathing problems because of being in Pure Illusion for so long... _Is Yuyu okay with all the smoke? _Even though she was wearing the amorphous necklace, I couldn't help worrying.

She was lying on the floor next to me, eyes wide open, which sent another spike of anxiety through me. _She's not dead, is she? Her body hasn't given out from the stress has it? _I knelt down next to her, and shook her shoulder.

"Yuyu?"

* * *

_Yuyu_

Was lying, flat on front. Felt something touch my shoulder. Nudge. Nudge nudge. "Hey, Yuyu?" _Yayaka's voice. _

Could see, but unable to make out shapes. Saw green blur. Saw black. _Bugs were black. _Heart thumping in chest. Beating wildly. _Need to breathe. _Inhaled. Exhaled. Felt hurried. Panicked. Inhaled and exhaled. Felt dizzy, couldn't see properly. Was lying down, but body shaking. No control.

"Hey, Yuyu, you're okay! There's no more bugs here, you're safe!" Could hear Yayaka talking again. Could hear words. But wasn't understanding them. Felt pressure on shoulder. A squeeze. Sat up quickly.

Too quickly. Brain felt fuzzy again. Could barely see, could barely think...

Felt something push gently against shoulder.

"Yuyu, it's just me. It's Yayaka." Heard her voice again. Turned to face her. Hair was a blur of gold. Eyes like gems. Amethyst.

_Yayaka is here. Yayaka is calm. No danger. _

"Take deep breaths, Yuyu, you're safe." Rough voice. Little harsh. But gentle words. _Yayaka is calm. Is okay to be calm._

_Deep breaths. _

Followed Yayaka's instructions. Inhaled and exhaled slowly. Vision slowly became clearer. Wild thumping in chest began to slow.

"You're doing good," she said, attempting smile. Her smile was uncertain… But was nice to see. Encouraging. Continued breathing slowly. Calming down. Eventually seemed to settle.

"Well done," Yayaka said, patting my shoulder. She looked away, taking in surroundings, suddenly alert.

* * *

_Yayaka_

It looked like we were standing in some sort of forest that looked like it came straight out of a fairy tale. I vaguely remembered the descriptions of magical forests from the story books Cocona gave me, and from her own stories... Forest trees that stood like an army of giants over us, their branches covered in vibrant green leaves. The grass (normally hardly seen in Pure Illusion, so I found it a little odd to see some here) was long, tangled, and just as vivid as the leaves above. A few stray toadstools dotted the land, bright red with white spots, poking up through the strands of grass, like a curious cat peeking over a fence... Actually, looking at the toadstools, they also made me think of wizard hats... Maybe they weren't toadstools at all, but instead, little gnomes, like from some of Cocona's stories.

I clicked my visor on to see if that was indeed the case, and was a little disappointed when it turned out to just be regular plant life. _Maybe one day I'll run into a world like the one's she's invented... _

My visor showed no other immediate danger here. I quickly made a note of this world's coordinates, so I could show Cocona a fairy tale forest one day, and I clicked it off. Thinking about fairy tales, I became curious and wondered if Yuyu knew any, and turned to ask her. My mouth was open, ready to ask her about the subject, but a completely different question came out of it, when I actually spoke:

"Are you okay, Yuyu?"

The silver-haired girl was staring down at her metal arm. I'd noticed it was still coated in amber sap from the insect world before, but I didn't realise just how bad the situation was, until I saw it now.

The layer surrounding it was at least an inch thick, and gleamed in the world's sunlight, making it look like an odd gemstone. There were a couple of beads of raised sap that I felt should have been following gravity and dripping towards the ground, but were instead frozen in place, having solidified.

"Can't move arm..." Yuyu said. Her left shoulder shook as she tried to command it to move, but nothing happened beyond the gummed-up limb vibrating slightly, stuck at its 90-degree angle. I looked over at her metal hand, wondering if that could respond at all, when I saw that her sword was still grasped tightly in a reverse grip, blade extended. _She probably would have retracted that by now if she could have... _I knelt down to have a closer look at the sword's handle. The dried sap around it resembled a heavily used candle, with trails and ridges of drips around the wrist, heading towards the elbow.

"Sap around hand is weakest," Yuyu said, with an edge to her voice. "Weakest... but still can't..." Her shoulder began to vibrate even more as she tried even harder to get some sort of reaction out of it. The only thing that happened was that Yuyu's arm shook a little more, causing the sword's blade to come dangerously close to her leg. Hell, at the rate she was going, it'd only be a matter of time before she'd slice her own foot off.

"Yuyu, stop!" I said. I quickly stood up, and put my hands on her amber-covered arm, as if to try and hold it still. "You're gonna hurt yourself if you're not careful!"

I was scared for a moment that she hadn't heard me, or that she wasn't able to hear at all, when I slowly felt the vibrations under my hands slow, and the arm was still.

"Thought new arm would help..." Yuyu said, quietly. She sounded... upset. "Thought I could be useful..."

"...Yuyu?" I looked up at her face and saw her eyes were wet with tears. There was no emotion on her face otherwise, but... she was _crying…_ I'd never seen either of the twins do that before... and it kinda killed my heart to see her like that. "Hey, Yuyu? Look at me."

She didn't respond or show any signs she'd heard. I thought I could hear her mumble 'defective' under her breath, which hurt to hear, even though it wasn't directed at me. _How long has she been feeling like this? _I wanted to help, but I wasn't really sure how. _What would Papika do if I was upset? _

"Okay, if you won't look at me, then at least listen to me." I couldn't really muster any gentleness for my voice, so I probably came across a lot grouchier than I felt, but I didn't want Yuyu to get caught in a spiral and feel worse so I felt the need to say something. "Your arm might have crapped up on you, but that doesn't stop you being useful. You still managed to get us both out of that bug world, with only one working arm... Hell, I'd probably be dead by now if you weren't here with me."

I waited, to see if Yuyu would say anything, or show signs of listening to me, but she only stood there, still looking down at her metal arm. _Maybe words can't snap her out of it__ this time… But what else can I do? _I thought about it, and reached a hand down to rummage through my weapon belt, when my hand hit something oddly warm. _What the…? _I looked down, and saw the dragon fang I'd taken from the game world when I was with Toto and Nyunyu. I'd completely forgotten I had it on me. Even though it seemed to give off heat naturally, I'd gotten so used to the damn thing being there, I'd stopped noticing. _But maybe it can help. If it's constantly warm, maybe it can melt the sap…_

I drew the long fang from my belt, and felt the spot it rested against grow cold. Holding it in my hand was a little difficult due to its temperature. When I stayed with Sayuri, one time she served food, and I dunno what happened, but it's like the plate absorbed the heat of the food, and I nearly dropped it because it was so damn hot. That's what it was like holding the fang in my hand, only rough to touch. _But that's a good thing, right? If it's as hot as this…_

I held Yuyu's encased metal hand in one of mine, so I could hold it steady, as I raised the fang to bottom of the sword's handle. The amber sap bubbled as the dragon fang came into contact with it. _This could work! _I pressed downwards with the fang, and wiggled it slightly, to try and loosen the sword from Yuyu's grip. It was kinda tough work, but I saw the blade drop a couple of inches as the sap melted. I kept a hold of the fang in my hand, as much as I wanted to drop it, and held the fang to Yuyu's wrist, as I used my other hand to try and free the sword. I'd managed to find the button that retracted the blade at least, and pressed it. The blade popped back in the handle, and I felt a wave of relief wash over me. _Now I don't have to worry about hurting her by mistake…_

I was focused on trying to pry the weapon from Yuyu's grip, so it made me jump when I saw a hand seemingly appear out of nowhere to help remove the weapon from the gummed-up hand. Yuyu was a lot better than I was at getting a hold of the sword (well, I guess it _was _made for her after all) and she managed to wrench the handle free and tuck it into her belt. I glanced up at her face, to see the tears had stopped falling at least, but her face was still blank… however she was looking at me now. I shot her a quick, but probably pained, smile (my hand was _really _starting to hurt now), before I reached for my weapon belt again, still holding the fang against Yuyu's sap-encased arm.

I found what I was looking for, and pulled out the jacket-copy Yuyu gave me back in the Pure Illusion world which was a replica of home. Her eyes betrayed a hint of surprise as she saw me take it out and unravel it. It'd gotten a bit screwed up and creased, but that didn't matter, this thing wasn't exactly going to look nice and neat any more when I was finished with it.

"Yuyu, it'll hurt for a bit, but can you hold the dragon fang against your arm for a moment?" I asked.

I waited for her hand to get a hold of the fang, before I took my own away. It was quite a contrast, having Yuyu's cool hand brush over mine, as I held the fang in place, until she could take it. (Man, it was _so_ nice to not be touching that friggin' thing any more…) As much as I wanted to savour the feeling, I had to get to work, fast. Quickly, I wrapped the main body of the unfolded jacket around Yuyu's metal arm, twice.

"Now, take your good hand away," I said. "Wait, your arm _is _heat and fire-proof, right?" Yuyu nodded slightly in answer, and did as I ordered, before I pulled the arms of my jacket, tight around the limb. After I was done with that, I drew the sleeves of my jacket around the back of her neck, and tied a couple of knots, creating a makeshift sling. Yuyu looked at me, and tilted her head.

"I know you don't like it, but it's the only solution I have right now." _It's a lucky thing I kept that fang… _"It melted the sap on your hand enough to free your sword, so if we give it enough time, maybe it can melt the sap on your arm too."

"Your jacket…"

"Doesn't matter," I said. "I never wear the damn thing any more, and if my plan works, I doubt I'd be able to wear it again. Try not to move that arm too much, I don't know how well my knots will hold up, and if they come loose—"

"Thank you."

Her words silenced me, and I suddenly felt embarrassed. A light blush creeped along my face, caught off guard by the unexpected thanks.

"N-no problem," I mumbled, as I looked down at my hand that was holding the fang before. The skin on it had turned pink, from being in contact with the object for so long… But there were a couple of patches of red too. _Blood? _I'd forgotten that I cut my hand back in the insect world. I guess at least the wound was cauterised now at least, so the bleeding would have stopped, but still, no wonder it hurt so damn much…

It was at that point that Yuyu's entire body flinched, as she was suddenly alert, her eyes staring into a place deep in the woods. Before I could react, she tackled me, forcing the two of us to the grassy ground, and I watched as a thick arrow sailed through the air, in the exact spot me and Yuyu were just standing in.

My body now on high-alert, I was about to grab Yuyu and run away with her, when a heavy foot crushed the grass barely an inch my head. Something in me said it'd be a bad idea to move now. I got the feeling that the only reason I still had a face, was because its owner's leg wasn't quite long enough to reach me and stomp it flat.

So instead, they compensated by aiming a large crossbow at my chest.

"Get up!" The owner of the crossbow said, their voice gruff.

Yuyu stood up quickly, obeying the order. I rolled onto my stomach and pushed myself up too, and faced our opponent.

The first thing I noticed, was that it had four arms. Both sets of them were holding crossbows in its two hands, one aimed at me, and the other at Yuyu. The second thing I noticed was that this guy looked kinda like how Cocona described a goblin to me: Green-skinned, pointed ears and nose… Its body was quite compact and round, along with its legs, but its arms were lanky and long. Kinda mismatched proportions on something that was easily six feet tall. Its mouth seemed to be pushing outwards constantly, like a monkey's, and it couldn't seem to close all the way. I thought that was pretty weird at first, but I watched as the large goblin smiled, and the lips slowly pulled away from its mouth, revealing pointed yellow teeth which looked far too large to fit in there naturally.

Its clothing, without a doubt, gave off the impression of a very experienced hunter. Belts of various knives and weapons were strapped all over its body, arms and legs. Most of them ran under its other pieces of clothing, which looked like they could have been made of scaly dragon hide, which was a similar shade of green to the grass below… or at least what I could see of it, that wasn't splattered in mud, in an attempt at camouflage. Dark brown stripes were smeared messily across its face, which was probably another measure taken to blend in, but a combination of that and those huge teeth, made it appear more like warpaint to me.

"What have we here…" Its voice rumbled and growled, like a lion, as it looked between the two of us. "A couple of princes, out to play?"

"Princes?" I questioned. Well, that confirmed the whole fairy tale world vibe I was getting from this place. I wondered why it'd called us that, but now I thought about it, I guess a weird marching band/riot police combination of clothing and our hair looking like it did, I could understand it mistaking us for guys.

The goblin ignored my question, and instead seemed to take a heavy interest in the dragon-egg amorphous hanging around Yuyu's neck.

"Only princes have such riches…" It sneered, using the crossbow aimed at Yuyu to gently lift the glimmering orange stone to get a better look. "How about you give it to me, and I'll let you both live?"

"Screw you!" was my first thought, and I'd ended up speaking before I had the chance to think.

I heard the wood creak under the goblins fingers as the crossbow aimed at me twitched. One pointed ear twitched, before its entire head turned to face me. "What did you say?"

It leaned towards me, until its rancid breath was hot on my face, and I was trying not to gag. I was also trying not to let my mouth get ahead of my brain this time. Instinct was telling me not to trust it, and not just because it showed an interest in amorphous. After all, it only said it'd let us live, it didn't say it wouldn't capture us and try sell us as slaves, or gladiators.

In the end, I didn't say anything at all and opted for keeping my mouth shut. Probably a smart move. Yuyu didn't speak either. The goblin stared between the two of us for a while, like it didn't know what to do.

Or that's what I originally thought. It wasn't long before the goblin's lips pulled over its teeth again in a wicked smile.

"Actually… I have a better idea…" It sneered.

* * *

"Move it, lad!" The goblin roared, as I nearly stumbled and tripped over another damn toadstool.

So, what was this goblin's plan? Well, he was a hunter, and this time, he was going for the biggest game yet. A creature that people in this world dubbed 'The Ray'. It was supposed to be a monster so huge; it could blot out the sun, just by standing. Hell, it wasn't unheard of for it to eclipse the whole world, for however long it decided to stand.

It's an ancient being, has been around for as long as anyone in this world could remember (although in Pure Illusion that could mean anything. A generation could be only a week old, or fifty years. As for how long this world itself existed? Frag knows. Asclepius never bothered trying to document anything to do with worlds unless they contained amorphous.) Since time in this world began, many people of many tribes and races have sought to hunt the Ray as its eclipses could last long enough to kill most of the crops that could be produced, and eventually brought some of the weaker beings to extinction. Causing eclipses weren't the only thing it was known for, either. Apparently, some have claimed it to erupt fire from random spots on its body, and others say it can flatten a town, just by landing on it... Or that's how the stories went at least.

As the goblin practically kicked Yuyu and I along, crossbows at our backs, it kept boasting about how it was finally going to be the one to take it down.

"I've been killing monsters since I was born!" It boasted loudly, as we trailed through the woods. "Took out my first tiger when I'd learnt to walk! Ripped a tooth right out of its head, and cut its throat open!"

The fact it referred to an animal commonly found as Earth made me wonder if 'the Ray' could have been related to a manta ray or a stingray… But then it began rambling about something called a 'squig'*, which from what I could gather, was basically a ball with feet and teeth, and was like nothing that could be found on Earth.

Actually, this guy seemed to have an obsession with teeth. Whenever he (gonna refer to the goblin as male from now on, he gives me that impression) talked about his kills, he often made a big deal of mentioning the size of its teeth, or how blunt, sharp, or holey they were. I turned to look behind me, watching his great huge jaw move as he spoke, and I wondered how many of those teeth were actually his, and weren't just taken from others and hammered into his own mouth. "And I'm going to be the hero of this world, for killing the Ray!" He roared.

As we were marching forward, me and Yuyu against our will, the forest began to thin out, instead being replaced with desolate, chalky-brown earth. There were still trees of sorts around, but instead of being bark and leaves, they were bulbous chunks of coral. Some of them were smashed and hollow, like how there would have been tree stumps in the forest behind us.

_How much further have we got to walk? _I clicked my visor on to see what data I could gather, and flinched. "Crapping hell…" I mumbled out loud. The whole horizon of my screen was a thick yellow line. _That's… The Ray… _I swallowed, trying to get rid of a growing lump in my throat. From the goblin's description, I knew it must have been pretty damn big, but actually _seeing_ it on my visor, and the fact it was wide enough to take up all that space…

But there was something else about it, which was strange. It wasn't quite enough to knock me out of my fear, but it was certainly a distraction for a moment: Amongst the great block of yellow, was that damn red dot.

So, we were still on target at least… _But we're going to have to fight something that big… _

I quickly checked for messages from Toto while my visor was up, just in case he'd come back to me by now to say the red dot was nothing at all and that we could ditch the goblin and go to another world, but no such luck. _It's probably barely been half an hour since we've gone… _I was about to click my visor off again, just as something caught my eye. I _did _have a message on there, but it was labelled as being from Hidaka. I narrowed my eyes suspiciously. _What does he have to say? _Knowing him, it might have just been a dumb test message, trying to get Flip Flap's technology compatible with Asclepius' from back when he experimented on my visor.

I opened it and saw I was completely wrong.

_'Running low on rockets? Try the grappling wire's explosive mode! Be careful, you only get one shot with each! - Hidaka'_

That… was a surprise. And going by the fact I hadn't set it off accidentally, meant there was probably a very complicated way to activate it, so I didn't end up blowing myself up by mistake. _I just hope I'd be able to figure it out before it comes to fighting the Ray… _But even then 'you only get one shot with each'… _Would that mean I'd permanently lose a grappling wire? _I'd have to be very damn certain I wanted to risk using it if that was the case…

I clicked the visor off, just as the world began to quake. Ahead of us, the horizon began to fatten and bloat, as the Ray split itself from the rest of the world, revealing its true shape. Like I'd guessed from the goblin mentioning tigers, the Ray did indeed resemble some sort of gigantic manta ray. Huge clods of earth tumbled down as the monster rose, causing a cascade that could have buried a village. A thick, heavy tail, whipped out behind it, shattering some of the giant coral-trees, as it turned towards us.

The sheer size of it alone was enough to fill me with dread...

But then I saw the tusks.

They thrust forward like battering rams from, what I'd assume, was the thing's face, only they were as thick as a redwood tree. I got the feeling too, that if you somehow managed to slice one in half, you'd probably be able to count the rings and get an idea how old it was. Where the base of the tusks met the face, there was a shock of fur, spiky and encrusted with dried blood of the many people that've tried to defeat it over the years and failed…

_And the goblin wants to kill this thing?!_

"What the hell is wrong with you?!" I yelled, looking over my shoulder to glare at him.

"Nothing's wrong with me, prince. Something will be wrong with you in a second though. After all," His lips slid over his oversized teeth as it grinned. "You can't hunt a beast like that without some bait."

* * *

_Yuyu_

Felt hunter's crossbow slam into back, knocking me forwards. Saw Yayaka stumble as same happened to her. The Ray's eyes opened. Blazing yellow. World fell into shadow as the Ray rose into the sky.

And it dived.

The Ray's sides flapped, like wings. Stones and dirt became a hail. Yayaka dived. Flattened herself to ground to minimise chance of being struck. Hunter ducked behind coral tree; double crossbows aimed at the Ray. They were safe from attack regardless.

Ray had targeted me.

Was separated from them.

Copied Yayaka and ducked, close to ground. Felt rush of wind overhead as the Ray flew above. Looked up to try and detect weak points, as combat seemed imminent. Could only see blue of creature's belly.

_Blue… Like vast ocean… Like surface of a lake…_

Began to shake. Felt trapped.

"Yuyu!" Heard Yayaka call for me. Distant. Looked. Saw her running towards me. The Ray's tail barely passed my head, before it turned in a great arc, turning towards Yayaka and hunter.

Felt terrified… Was shaking… But tried to focus on monster. Detect weak points. Thought it would be easy to see on something so big. In a way, it was. Many weak points… miniscule. Ring around base of tail. Place where tusks met face. Mouth. Eyes. But would need to attack all to defeat it.

Ray lunged at Yayaka; tusks aimed at her.

"Yayaka!"

* * *

_Yayaka_

Yuyu shouted my name, like she was trying to warn me about the great fragging monster in front of me. _Yeah, I can see that, Yuyu! _Is what I would have yelled out if I wasn't panting from running so hard to try and get to her. _She doesn't have any ranged weapons at all, she has no chance of fighting that thing!_

_Hell, none of us do, if we don't know where the crap to hit it! _

Although the goblin was prepared in having probably at least fifty weapons on his person, none of them looked like they'd be too effective. _Did he even friggin' PLAN before coming here? _I clicked my visor on in a hurry and sent a quick message to Flip Flap. _'Big trouble, need help!'_ I doubted there'd be anything anyone there could actually do, but if I could get in contact with Toto, maybe he could help us figure something out.

_Until then, we're just gotta work with what we have._

An unholy shriek pierced the air, as the Ray swept down, close to me. I just about hit the floor as I felt it pass over me, inches from my body. Dust billowed up, blowing all around. It would have gotten in my face if it wasn't for my visor, and I considered it a lucky move to call for help when I did...

Or at least until the screen cracked when a rock slammed into it.

I mean, don't get me wrong, I was happy it didn't go straight through my skull, but the screen... At school a couple of times, I've seen people with cracked phone screens, and a whole section of the screen would just be colourful lines of light, and didn't respond to anything. Basically: my visor was like that now, but all over.

"Damn it..." I felt the words, more than heard them as I cursed and turned my visor off. _Probably deafened by the Ray... _

_Wait a second... Deafened..._

"Yayaka!" Yuyu could have shouted as loudly as she could as she ran towards me, but it sounded muffled, like her voice was trying to reach me through a wall of honey. As she ran closer to me, I caught a glint of bronze just below her makeshift sling.

_Deafened... Noise grenades..._

But could the Ray be affected by sound at all? There was nothing in the goblin's legends about that. _Maybe not... _I made a mental note of it, just in case though.

Being touched by Yuyu's cold hand made me feel suddenly alert. I pulled myself out of my thoughts of possible weaponry and-

"Yuyu, your hand..." I couldn't hear my voice at all, only feel the vibrations in my throat, but that didn't matter. I'd noticed the other time that Yuyu's fingernails had an edge of red to them, but it looked like now the entire nails were red as if something had gotten lodged under them and caused her to bleed.

Yuyu withdrew her hand quickly, and looked up at the Ray. "Can see weak points," she said, barely audible. "Lots of them."

That filled me with hope a little, as I turned to face the monster myself... and then that hope began to fizzle out again when the overwhelming sheer size of it made me think how it'd be nearly impossible to take out.

"Over here, Ray!" The goblin yelled, taking careful aim with his two crossbows. Once again, I questioned the goblin's sanity, as it sent a couple thick bolts at the Ray's underbelly. As they shot through the air, the bolts extended, until they looked more like spears, and what looked like thorns, popped out of every available space on the shaft.

They made contact with the Ray, and pierced its flesh. Strange golden blood began to gush from the wounds, like waterfalls. The Ray flipped upwards, heading into the sky, as it let out a pained cry. The goblin whooped at its one successful shot...

Before being promptly smacked aside by the Ray's tail. His body sailed through the air as if he'd been hit by a hundred-ton freight train.

As the Ray flew up, it eclipsed the sun, its golden blood going from shimmering brightly, to being darkened. Its yellow eyes glowed, glaring down at my and Yuyu intently. I wondered why, as I barely caught sight of a gold-edged drop of blood the size of a boulder, splashed to the ground and shining flames bloomed from it, like a burning flower.

"TAKE COVER!" I shouted to Yuyu, even though she was right next to me, although that was probably a panic reaction because _its blood could be set on fire... _Although I was scared as hell right now, running was really hard, and I stumbled as I tried to duck behind a coral tree. Yuyu noticed and tucked her good arm under my shoulders, to try and support me so we could get away.

Like a rain of bombs, so many more patches of fire fell and burst, looking like waves of golden grass, before fading back into blackened earth. _No wonder there's so many legends of it causing extinction of so many species..._

A part of me (okay, a lot of me) was hoping, that somehow, after the goblin was taken out, that the Ray would leave us alone and go back to sleep.

That part of me was stupid.

Hell, so was the rest of me, as my eyes fell on the dragon-egg necklace Yuyu was wearing, and for some reason it only occurred to me then, that I've had another weapon at my disposal all this damn time. I mean, I've literally been walking next to two pieces of amorphous, which would have let me transform, and probably have saved us a lot of trouble these past two worlds.

Well, okay I might have been able to handle the bugs back there with no problem, but there's no telling how I'll do against the Ray…

But there's only one way to find out.

"Yuyu, I need to borrow your power for a little," I said, putting my hand on the silver-haired girl's shoulder. _I'm on a mission to protect Papika and Cocona, and everyone else at Flip Flap… And I'm here to protect Yuyu, too. They're all important to me, and I can't let them down!_

"Flip… FLAPPING!"

I was scared for a second, that the amorphous' power wouldn't respond, but there was no need for that. I could feel the strength flooding through my body, and saw a light green aura around my body as I managed a full transformation. I took my hand away from Yuyu's shoulder, and lightly swept my head from side to side, feeling the green wave of hair tumble down my back. I doubted I'd ever grow my hair long like this, it feels a little… cumbersome. But hey, if it came with all this power, I won't complain.

The golden blood had stopped falling, and the Ray had turned its attention directly on me.

"Yuyu, stay down!" I said, before I stepped hard on the ground, and rocketed high up into the air. The Ray's pupil-less eyes followed, and it twisted its head around, as it suddenly lunged forward, aiming its tusks right at me…

* * *

_Yuyu_

Watched as Yayaka's hand left my shoulder. Her gold hair becoming green. Purple eyes blazing orange.

Yayaka wasn't around for long. Turned her back to me, shook her hair, and leapt. Uncertain if jump or flight, but was roughly same height as the Ray. The monster wasted no time, and charged for Yayaka. Watched as Yayaka landed on a tusk, jumped off it, and landed a series of kicks along the Ray's back, leaving punctures. Drips of gold blood spurted from them.

Wasn't hitting weak points, but couldn't deny, attack seemed effective. Yayaka was useful.

…_And I am not… _Tried to focus on Yayaka fighting monster. Green light darting as giant beast twisted and writhed trying to attack her. Was difficult to follow. _Wanted to come with Yayaka to help her… Haven't. Hole device lead to bug world. Unable to act. Yayaka had to come back for me. Helped me. Should have been other way around… _Yayaka's light looked like a meteor. Dancing through the air, fighting the Ray. Hadn't noticed, but Ray's body wasn't entirely skin. Had noticed the fur running along the spine, but saw parts of it lash out. Tentacles. Agile Yayaka dodged them. Little trouble. Was a spectacle to watch. _But haven't been able to help… Gave Yayaka power to transform, but could have been achieved if Yayaka solo and had necklace. _

_Wanted to help… Couldn't. Got too scared to act. Could follow orders, but was made to do that… Wanted to be useful… Metal arm became useless…_

Moved real hand over sling made of Yayaka's jacket. Felt warm spot under hand. Wet. Sap was melting.

_But even if arm was available, can't help… _If hunter's crossbows taken for use, doubt I could fire or aim effectively. Can detect weak points, but ranged capabilities… limited. Needed Toto. Sword could be used as weapon, but not in this situation. Even if Ray was grounded, doubt sword would help.

_Yayaka needs Toto, not me… Useless… _

_Useless Yuyu..._

"Yuyu-onee-sama!"

Twitched head, confused. Heard a voice, but… couldn't have. If came from arm, should be muffled due to being covered with fabric and sap, but was clear and loud.

And incoming.

Turned to source of sound. Saw Nyunyu riding on a yellow box… _Incorrect. Not a yellow box… TT-392. _

Nyunyu landed next to me, but looked up at Yayaka as she fought the Ray.

"Yayaka requested… assistance…"

Blinked. _Toto's voice? _Looked down at TT-392. Questioned identity.

"Am Toto… Hello Yuyu…" His voice contained hint of smile. _Odd. _In fact, presence of TT-392 and Nyunyu was strange, even if Yayaka called for help… Not what would have expected… But remembered Cocona's request for safe world coordinates, to allow Papika to acclimatise to Pure Illusion again. _This is definitely not a safe world. Would only scare Papika more. _Flip Flap sent reinforcements, only ones available…

"Why are you here, Toto?" Asked him. Didn't understand. Was unable to fight in that form. Doubted TT-392's cameras would allow for good viewing of Pure Illusion. Technology in Pure Illusion unreliable at best.

"Can't go to… Pure Illusion… alone…" he replied, looking up at Yayaka. _Controlling TT-392. Only came to enable Nyunyu entry to Pure Illusion._

_But as reinforcements… Robot with no combat capabilities, and inexperienced child. _Became worried. Their usefulness as limited as mine. Would guess Toto was using TT-392, as he couldn't be a physical presence without risking further crystallisation… But he had no weapons in that form. Nyunyu—

"There's a dead guy here!" She said. Turned to her. Saw her pulling two crossbows as big as she was from hands of body. Was unable to lift them without struggling, but didn't want to discard one of them. Stubbornly held onto both, dragging them along the ground.

"Is that Yayaka?" She asked, large orange eyes fixed on sparking green dot above.

"Yes."

"She's different!"

"Transformed."

"Transformed?" Nyunyu seemed confused. Was about to explain, but no need. "…Amorphous power and to think of something important…" Mumbled to herself. Approached me, putting forehead against my arm, not letting go of crossbows. Flinched at unexpected contact. My head twitched at odd behaviour… Then eyes widened. Realised what she was doing.

"Flip flapping!"

Bright light! Closed eyes tightly. _Is Nyunyu… transforming?_

Light faded. Opened eyes.

Nyunyu's hair long. Platinum gold. Armour had changed too, difficult to see from this angle. Removed her forehead from my arm and she stepped away. Nyunyu's armour upon further investigation… unsettling. _Sickly shine to plating… Serrated scythes on ends of arms… Helmet with bulging eyes…_ _Mandibles... _I took steps away from her. _Insect design..._ _Repulsive… _

Nyunyu thought otherwise. Looked down at armour briefly, turning arms over. No expression on face, but showed interest and appeared to admire armour.

Was the opposite. Trying not to recoil. Trying not to think how it looked like a praying mantis swallowing her whole. _Creepy... Ugly... _Felt TT-392 bump against my leg. Possibly an attempt from Toto to reassure me, having noticed dislike of Nyunyu's armour.

Nyunyu raised her arms. Crossbows no longer cumbersome to raise and wield. She smiled, looked up at Yayaka and jumped into the air.

* * *

_Yayaka_

_This thing just isn't going down! _No matter how many damn kicks I landed, and how much flaming golden blood burst out, the Ray refused to weaken. If you told me it was a god in this part of Pure Illusion, I'd have no trouble believing you.

Apparently, I'd managed to piss it off enough for it to reveal another weapon in its arsenal. There was sound, a little like wet or sticky Velcro as a fair number of tentacles, which were previously pressed flat, pulled away from its body, and began to lash out at me. It made it a damn sight harder to land hits, and although I was full of amorphous power, I was starting to get pretty tired out. Although I preferred making physical contact if I could help it, I had to resort to kicking lightning soccer balls at it, as dodging the mass of tentacles was far too much for me to handle. It's weird, I would have thought it would have been slowing down by now, I mean its blood has basically been spurting and exploding all over, but it didn't seem to care in the slightest. If anything, setting itself alight just seemed to make it madder and more intent on killing me.

And at the rate things were going, it wouldn't be long until that happened...

"Yayaka!"

Hearing a voice that sounded oddly nearby, and definitely didn't belong to Yuyu, freaked me out so much I nearly fell out of the sky upon hearing it. _What the..._ I turned in the direction it came from. There was... a small girl flying towards me, wearing shiny silver-gold armour and holding two crossbows, which were as tall as the wielder.

My first thought was that it was some kind of demented fairy from this world, as it flew towards me... Until it opened its mouth, "Toto said nyu needed help!" and I realised who it was.

"Wha- _Nyunyu?!_" I couldn't help but voice my disbelief, which was dumb, because now I got a better look, I saw that her clothing seemed a little insect-like and she was wielding the goblin's crossbows, probably because they were the closest gun-like objects she could find. Still, "what the crap are you doing here?"

"Toto said nyu needed help!" She repeated.

"But you're transformed! How the frag-"

"Nyu told me how!" She said. "Said nyu need to think of important things and say Flip Flapping and use amorphous! So, I did it, and it worked!"

I opened my mouth to speak, only to find myself closing it. _I _did _say that to her... Way back when we almost got trapped in that dust world… _Man, that conversation felt like it happened a year ago, rather than maybe a couple of weeks...

A piercing shriek came from the Ray, which was so powerful, it shook the very sky itself. I felt a little weak and wobbly already, but it took everything I had not to drop out of the sky right then. Nyunyu didn't seem bothered by it at all. The Ray was heading towards us, tusks ready to impale us. Whereas I was alert, and ready to get out of there, Nyunyu seemed transfixed by the impossibly big monster. _Bad time to freeze up, kiddo!_ I grabbed her and shoved her roughly out of the way, putting myself in line to take a hit from the tusks.

SMACK!

Heard a tear in fabric... Pain… A glancing blow... But it felt like my whole body was... bruised... and my bones... a light breeze could... shatter... them...

Head fuzzy...

_I can't..._

* * *

_Yuyu_

"Yayaka-onee-sama!" Could hear Nyunyu's cry from high above. Wanted to call Yayaka's name too, but was frozen. Watched as the green light faded, and Yayaka fell to earth. Saw the Ray's tusk slam into her.

Impact may have been fatal.

_Don't want to lose Yayaka... _Fell to knees. Unable to act. _Don't know why I went with Yayaka... Can't help... Useless... Defective... _

TT-392 seemed conflicted. Could imagine Toto at Flip Flap uncertain what to do, but eventually saw helicopter blades appear and whirr. Flew for Yayaka, to catch her.

_I should have done that... _Didn't know if could have saved her from more potential damage if fell from that height and landed in my arms. Unknown if I would have been fast enough to reach her.

_Can't be dead... Please __don't be dead..._

Legs and body felt heavy, but forced self to move. To run after TT-392. To see Yayaka.

_Please don't be dead..._

Was desperate for Yayaka to live. Chanting it like a prayer.

_Please don't be dead..._

Saw thin, rope-like arms emerge and extend from TT-392's body. Reached out to grab Yayaka. Both ended in blunt claws. One curled in circles a way below. Other grabbed Yayaka's wrist, and tried to shift Yayaka to falling on curled up arm, for softer landing. TT-392 slowly lowered Yayaka to the ground. Wanted to look up. Make sure the Ray wasn't attacking us. Didn't want to look up. Felt as if taking eyes off Yayaka would lessen survival chances. _But if safe and then suddenly attacked..._

Glanced up quickly. Saw Nyunyu shooting silver and gold bolts of energy at it. Ray was occupied.

_Safe for now... _Reached Yayaka. Knelt down by her side. Was no longer transformed. Armour had large rip in right side, but somehow still holding together.

Saw her chest rise and fall.

_Breathing._

_Alive. _

Let out a breath didn't realise was holding. _Relief..._

"Will she be okay?" I asked Toto.

TT-392 gently took arms away from Yayaka, lowering her to ground. TT-392's head moved quickly, scanning Yayaka.

"Will be okay..." Toto said. "Heavy bruising... from impact... Will need to... take it easy..."

"She would refuse to do that."

"Yes." Could hear Toto smirking. He pointed TT-392's head up at Nyunyu fighting the Ray. Nyunyu's attacks, and Ray's spraying blood looked like fireworks, bursting above. "Nyunyu… transformed…" His voice was serious now.

"Yes…" I said. Was amazed she could do that.

"I have… transformed before…" Toto said. Didn't look at him, although revelation was interesting. _Can transform like Yayaka, Cocona and Papika… _

Heard explosion from above. Put arm around Yayaka, ready to move her if Ray's blood began to fall again. No need. Explosion was Nyunyu. Silver and gold clouds bloomed all over Ray's body. Gold scratches, like a grid, carved into large beast's body. Tentacles lashed at Nyunyu, but she dodged them, nimbly. Darting and buzzing like a bee. Ray ended up getting tangled. Screamed with rage... but cry was weak.

_Nyunyu's... defeating it... _Would have thought impossible. Inexperienced... Not many journeys in Pure Illusion... But was fighting the Ray alone...

And winning.

Couldn't help being amazed. _Do transformations give that much power? _Was hard to believe...

"Pure... Barrage!" Could hear Nyunyu's voice from far below. Louder than the Ray, but not deafening. Crossbows in her hands glowed, blinding. Bright. Appeared to be charging with energy. The Ray charged her; mouth open...

The energy was unleashed! A hundred lasers, shot from crossbows, piercing the Ray's skin. As beams touched the Ray, saw sparks and fire from within the monster. Flames licked out, covering the Ray. Appeared to be swallowed by gold fire. Sight was... unsettling. Looked down at Yayaka. Thought about how she said she watched kids burn to death... Doubted it was like the Ray exactly, but seeing something like that happen... Was unpleasant to watch. Can only imagine how it felt...

_"I won't let you drown"... _Yayaka said that to me in flooding temple. Kept her promise. Kept me safe. Didn't drown.

Made promise to self.

_Won't let Yayaka burn._

* * *

_Authors note: *A Squig is a creature in the Warhammer/Warhammer 40,000 universe. There seem to be a few varieties of them in the lore, but I described one like a squig you'd most commonly see/encounter in an Orcs and Goblins/Orruk/Ork army. Speaking of which, the idea for the Ray was inspired by a Warhammer Screamer of Tzeentch. I figured Squigs and Screamers looked alien enough to be found in Pure Illusion. This is the only time I'm planning to borrow from the Warhammer universe. DISCLAIMER: I own absolutely nothing from any Warhammer universe. I am just a fan, who has more miniatures than she can count, and have been stuck on my fic for frag knows how long now, and needed to use some things as inspiration to try and move on. _

_I apologise if this chapter seems… off or a little out of place. I've tried writing a different scene or a few in this one's place… Five times, maybe? Two of said scenes were variations of what I'm planning the next chapter to be, but it still felt too 'early' for events in it to happen yet, so I wanted to put SOMETHING else between them, and this was the only idea I could find myself sticking with. It's probably not great, but I needed a little extra something before the next chapter happens (although annoyingly I'll probably have to discard both 4k word scrap variations and start all over AGAIN to get things to work) so… yeah... But even then at the rate I'm going, I'll probably have to scrap the whole idea I had for the next chapter. Writing is fussy. Ah well._


	17. Chapter 16 (complete)

_Authors note: Fair warning now: this chapter gets a little weird._

* * *

_Yayaka_

Somehow, after taking a hit that felt like someone slammed a baseball bat the size of a skyscraper into my chest, I woke up. Everything hurt like friggin' hell. Having anything in contact with the right half of my body felt like it was upsetting shards of broken glass that'd been trapped under my skin somehow. I mean, I know it'll heal eventually, but right now? Yeah, didn't feel like it was gonna happen any time soon.

"Awake?" came a voice.

"I'm awake…" I said. My voice sounded like at some point I decided to down a glass of gravel. My throat felt sore to say the least. My stomach rumbled loudly, as I felt a sudden wave of hunger. I put a hand over it, as if to silence it, and regretted doing so, as even the light touch felt like I'd just punched myself in the gut. I know I should be grateful I could even breathe, but _damn _I hope I recovered soon… Something fuzzy entered my line of sight, and it took me a little while to work out it was Yuyu holding a ration bar. I reached for it.

"Where's the Ray?" I asked, sitting up so I could eat.

"Dead," she answered.

I chewed and forced myself to swallow the bland, dry ration, before having a look around… And realised three things: we weren't in the fairy tale world any more (my vision was still a little fuzzy, but there was a _lot _more silver and gold than I remembered), Nyunyu wasn't here, and Yuyu had what looked like squares of green next to her. "Tell me what happened while I was out cold."

Yuyu summarised it all: After I fell, Nyunyu beat the Ray on her own (which made me raise my eyebrows), and came over to see how I was doing. Worried about my condition, and knowing that world contained danger, Yuyu set a Hole device for a safe world for us, and sent Nyunyu and TT-392 back to Flip Flap.

"Why did you send them back?" I asked. I mean, I wanted to try and carry out this mission alone, sure, but… something about what she said bugged me.

"No immediate danger, so no longer required. Even if danger, Toto unable to fight. If no danger, Nyunyu prone to wandering or shooting things. Or both. Could get lost or attract potential enemy in a future world."

Although I wanted to work out what the hell Yuyu said that bothered me, my head was a little fuzzy from my injury, so I couldn't place my finger on it... Rather than worry about that and overload my brain when I could barely think, I asked Yuyu about the green squares sitting next to her.

"Remains of hunter's clothing. Required for repairs."

"Repairs?" That confused me a little, but as I raised my right hand (which felt heavy, so it was a bit of a challenge), and brushed it against the right side of my body. I hissed in pain, when my fingers came into contact with skin. Looking down, I saw an angry purple bruise.

"Toto's scans revealed no damage to organs. Ribs are cracked. Bruising will remain for a long time. Both could be agitated easily." Yuyu said. _Cracked ribs... _I've had that happen to me a couple of times before when I worked for Asclepius. It was one of few times they _didn't _send me back into Pure Illusion until I was fully recovered. There's nothing you can do for broken ribs (even if there was, I doubted Asclepius would really do anything unless it meant losing their key to Pure Illusion), so it was just a thing I'd have to put up with for a while... As annoying as that would be, and as much pain as I was in right now, I was also thankful that was the only damage I took. If I hadn't been transformed, you probably would have needed to scrape what was left me off the floor.

"So... that green stuff is to fix my armour?"

Yuyu nodded.

"Why haven't you done that yet?"

"Would prefer you to be awake while repairs take place. Waking due to pain could cause sudden movement. Needle lodged in injured side would not aid recovery."

After she said that, Yuyu shifted closer to me, bringing the scraps of the goblin's dragonhide clothing with her, and took out a needle and thread from her belt pockets. Small as they were, I was almost a little surprised she had space for them in there amongst all the rations she bought for me.

I sat up as straight as I could, and propped my right arm up on my knees, so it wouldn't get in the way of Yuyu's sewing, as she tried to carry out makeshift repairs. _If that really is dragon skin, I wonder if it'll protect me from fire? _There was no telling if that would be the case, but I could hope that at least. _Either way, as soon as this is done, we can get moving again…_

_Should I be thinking like that though? Would it be better for me to head back to Flip Flap until I recover? _I thought about it for a little while. I know that if Flip Flap had sent Cocona, she would have dragged me back with her, without a second thought, because she'd want me to get better. _But I'm here in the first place because of her. I need to keep her safe. If I go back to Flip Flap, they're not gonna let me go back here until I'm recovered, and someone could get hurt by my shadow between now and then... I have to end this._

I clicked my visor on to see if I could get any readings, and cursed when I saw only coloured lines across the cracked screen. I forgot all about that... It made me mad. _How the crap can I hunt the shadow down if I can't see where the hell it is? _I mean, okay, there was still no guarantee that's what the red dot actually was- I just realised: even if Toto _did _examine that data and work out what it was, there wouldn't be a good way for him to contact me and tell me. I had no idea if my voice function still worked, and even if it did, Toto has permanent breathing problems now, I wouldn't want to tire him out by pressing him for too much information…

_Something about this isn't right… _

"Finished."

My train of thought immediately crashed when Yuyu said my name, causing me to jump. _That was fast. _I moved my right arm from my knees, back down to my side… The dragonhide squares that'd been stitched over the gap felt… surprisingly solid. More like I was resting my arm against a sheet of steel, rather than something that felt like clothing. I doubted I could bend over too well if I wanted (not that I should probably be doing that in my current state anyway), and my ability to run probably just took a hit, but the new addition to my armour definitely felt like it'd keep me safe.

For some reason after that, I took a better look at the scenery, and was shocked, because I _recognised _this part of Pure Illusion.

Waves of silver, gold, shining greys, and dull rusted iron were... _everywhere. _Metal bushes and plant life of all shapes and sizes (minus grass, which I was happy about because that would _not _be fun to be laying on it my condition) covered the whole land, apart from the small clearing we were in. Palm trees, pine trees, oak trees, rose bushes, sweet peas, lilies a couple of giant mushrooms... if it was a plant, it was here, and some of them were just as fragile as their real-life counterparts. If you wanted, you could tear some of the petals, and it'd feel like you're ripping tinfoil…

_This is the land of metal leaves… _

I'd only been here once before, but I've always wanted to come back here, and I was sad when Asclepius called us back from the mission. I grabbed a loose metal leaf from the floor and took it back with me so I would remember this place...

And now... I was here again. Here amongst the strange plants, with their colourful leaves flashing in the sun, which give the impression of twinkling stars in the sky...

_Yuyu said she took us to a safe world, which means… _"You remembered this place…" I just… couldn't believe it. I walked up to one of the metal oak trees nearby, so I could put my hand against it, and feel the coolness beneath my palm. I felt like I was in a dream or something, just being here amongst the dancing lights of the metallic surfaces… I had to touch something in here, just to know this was real, and I wasn't imagining things.

My fingers touched the grey bark…

…But it didn't feel cold. It felt… Wet. Like paint…

And my hand was sinking into it.

I grabbed onto my arm with my other hand, to try and pull it free, but if anything, that just seemed to make things happen faster. _WHAT THE HELL?! _By the time it occurred to me to try and use my grappling wires, to try and tug myself back out, both of my hands had been absorbed by the wet slimy tree trunk. Starting to panic, I tried to kick at the ground with my steel capped boots, to try and anchor myself to the world, only to hear them 'splash' as the ground I was standing on was no longer solid. _SHIT! _I looked over at Yuyu, and was about to call for her to help, but I barely had time to take a deep breath, before my head was submerged too, and I was about to drown in tree bark…

* * *

…Or so I thought.

Somehow, I found myself able to wake up for the second time today… Only now, I was alone. The ground here was solid. Carefully, I pushed myself to my feet, and had a quick glance at my surroundings.

All I saw was a wall of mist.

I frowned and closed my eyes, trying to listen out for any possible danger…

Nothing.

I lowered myself to the ground, and hissed with pain, as the dragon hide repairs on my armour made it hard to do so, to see if I could feel any vibrations in the floor with my hand.

Again, nothing.

_The dragonhide. Yuyu fixed my armour with it. Where the hell is she?_

"YUYU!" I shouted her name as loudly as I could manage, but there was no response. I had my hands on my grappling wire too, just in case I'd attracted a monster or something hostile, but nothing appeared. That wasn't enough for me to take my hand away just yet though.

_What the frag just happened?_

Then I heard a faint voice, from deep within the mist. "Buu-chan! Wait!"

"Buu-chan?" I repeated the words out loud to myself, quietly. _Papika's robot? Or are they referring to someone else entirely? _As if the words had cast a spell, the mist around me began to lift. Shadowy square towers began to melt away from the mist, becoming solid shapes. There were some smaller squat buildings huddling close around the towers, too, as if they were worshiping them, making me feel a little uneasy. It didn't help that all the structures were white, either. My mind went back to when Asclepius held a little ceremony for me after I found my first amorphous in the Iron Boy's desert world. Part of me wanted to shudder, and step away… but… I also felt drawn to the buildings. There was something really familiar about them, and despite the Asclepius vibes I was getting, I found myself taking a few steps towards them.

It felt a little like I was drifting, as I moved. Like I was walking through a dream, rather than—I was about to say 'reality', but in Pure Illusion feeling like this could well be an effect of this world. It was so odd; I almost didn't notice the grass as my steel-capped boots brushed through it lightly. If I was feeling more alert, I would have thought that maybe grass was more common in Pure Illusion than I originally thought, but instead… I don't know, I felt like I was watching fish swimming in a tank, my mind was just sorta wandering as everything happened around me.

Much like how the buildings appeared, slowly people began to fade into this world too. At first, being grey shapes, that were walking out of the mist, but as the mist retreated, and the shapes moved closer, colour slowly bled into them, and I saw skin and clothes… White lab coats and black trousers. Despite the drifty-dreamy feeling I had, seeing so many people around me wearing that was enough to set me on edge. Their outlines and facial features were blurry, as if they weren't really there, but that didn't make it any better. If anything, my imagination saw that as an opportunity to mess with me, and I pictured then all turning towards me, with white crescent-moon shaped smiles and dark holes for eyes, as they'd all turn to face me, arms outstretched, ready capture me and take me off for more experiments…

I wanted to shake my head, to try and clear those thoughts out of my brain, but I was starting to feel a little dizzy being here. It was a little disorienting to tell distance here, like when me and Papika were in the sketch world in Mimi's jungle—

"Buu-chan!"

There was that voice again… And my stray thought answered why it sounded familiar to me, about two seconds before I saw the yellow cereal-box robot wheeling along a flagstone path, being chased by…

"Papika…" I said her name out loud. Unlike everything else here, every detail about Papika was clear and sharp, as if the rest of the world was on an old VHS tape where every frame was smudged, but Papika was a high definition image carefully pasted on top… Only a lot smaller. One of her arms was out, and she was running as hard as she could in front of a wall lined with flowers, in a desperate attempt to catch the robot. She was wearing a white dress, that flapped in the air around her, along with her pink hair. Eventually, she stopped running, and doubled over, hands on her knees, panting for breath… Or so I thought at first, but I heard a hiccup and I thought I saw something glint in the light, before leaving a small dark mark on the flagstone path. A tear? _She's crying… _

"Hey, Papika, are you okay?" I asked.

If the small Papika heard me, she didn't respond. _Why is she so clear, when the rest of this world is so faded? _I knelt down by her side, and looked up at her face. It was a little odd to watch, as another clear tear rolled down her cheeks, only for it to leave and become another blurry smudge as it fell to the ground. _Is she sad because she can't catch Buu? _My hands were still on my grappling wires. I debated shooting one after the robot to bring him here, for Papika, but if I did that, I wasn't sure if I'd upset this world somehow, or if it would even interact like it should in the real world. I didn't know what I could do. I wanted to help the small Papika, and even reached out with a hand to wipe a tear or hers away, and I saw my hand was oddly clear too.I mean, I didn't think it'd be blurry, but it was just… really weird to look at. _This damn place is gonna give me a headache at this rate… _Hell, I could already feel one trying to build up behind my eyes. I sat down, resting my back against a nearby wall (thankfully not falling through it), and put my hands over my eyes, to try and shut out the visual weirdness.

And that was when I heard another familiar voice.

"Do you want to hear a story?"

_That's… I've heard those words before… _I tore my hands away from my eyes, and tried to look over my shoulder, nudging the wall of flowers as I did so. _Not just the words, but in that exact tone too… it can't be… _I know I was only gonna give myself a bigger headache, but I had to know for sure. _It's too similar. It can't be a coincidence… _My hand pushed against some of the flowers, I felt my fingers touch against all the leafy stalks… I looked down at them, and even though I knew what I'd see, I was still startled to find myself looking at the waves of red and pink begonias. _This is… _Then I turned my attention to the blue-haired and blonde-haired girls I knew I'd see sitting amongst the flowers. _Me and Cocona…_

_Is this… a memory?_

It was bizarre to be witnessing this scene from another place entirely. I could still picture a fair part of this exact moment in my mind, and seeing it from another angle was… weird. But as little Cocona began to tell me the story of the banished knight, and she grew more confident and energetic with every word… I found myself smiling. Of course, I knew the story she was going to tell, and how the knight ran into all sorts of friends and enemies… I ended up sitting with my back against the wall again, with my eyes closed, listening to Cocona's story. The knight was going through the craggy mountains, and lush rainforests again… Times he was alone, and others he found friends… Although this time, instead of picturing them all as Cocona in different costumes, like I did when I heard this story all those years ago, this time as she told the story, I only pictured her as the friendly maiden who guided the lone knight (me) on part of the journey. This time when the knight ran into the fairy, I pictured a tiny Papika flying around. When the knight made it to the wizard's tower asking to be healed, Toto answered the door. When the knight was surrounded in the woods, it was Nyunyu the ranger, and Yuyu the stone golem who'd helped the knight stand their ground. _I never really had friends to start with, and now I have so many… _

I opened my eyes again, and this time, I saw the young Papika had stopped crying, and was standing close to the wall, with her ear against the begonias, as if she was trying to listen better. I doubted I could touch her, but if I could, I would have been tempted to lift her up over the wall so she could watch as Cocona acted everything out too. When Cocona was finished with that story, and saw I wanted more, she'd begun to tell the story of Hansel and Gretel. Knowing how upset the story made Cocona, I felt myself getting a little sad, as I remembered her telling me how she'd never known her parents… _But that's different now, too. She stays at Flip Flap with her dad, and she can see her mum in Pure Illusion when she wants too… _But Yayaka of the past didn't know that… And neither did Papika. She stood there, on the other side of the wall, out of sight of mine and Cocona's younger selves, with her hand over her heart, looking as if she was about to start crying again.

"She sounds so sad…" the little Papika said.

Right after that, I heard my younger self say "I don't have a family either…"

That… hurt a little to hear again. In all that time, things had changed for Cocona and she now had a mother, father, brother and sisters, so her saying she didn't have a family was no longer the case. For me however, my sentence was still mostly true. Nyunyu was made from my blood, so I had a little sister but… that was it, I guess. Honestly, I wasn't sure I wanted parents or anything, but the way I said that… a small part of me maybe felt a little jealous…

"They both sound so lonely…" the young Papika said, looking like she was going to burst into tears all over again, as she voiced what I was thinking about myself. I was about to reassure her, when she said "I want to help them!"

Maybe because I still wasn't quite used to hearing someone say something like that, like they cared… but as she spoke, it was as if someone sent a little shock or spike through my heart, but not a bad one. My chest began to feel warm. I felt a little rush of affection for the pink-haired girl standing next to me, and for the future Papika, too. _Even back then she cared about someone she'd never met, just like Cocona…_

I heard Cocona ask me if I wanted to play a game, and the little Papika next to me suddenly seemed to leap up. If she was a dog, her ears would have pricked up at the mention of 'play' and her tail would be wagging. She jumped up, trying to get a better view, as if to want to try and invite herself, the top of her head just about appearing over the flowers, as she rushed over, eager to join us.

I remember I'd looked in the direction where Papika had been listening to our conversation, and seeing the pink flowers weave and bob… But as I saw the young Papika here, I realised my theory I had back at Mimi's house was right after all. _So, she _was _here that day… _

But for all the effort her younger self was making right now, to rush over and meet us, she never did. The next things I remember were playing a word game with Cocona. We'd say things we liked or disliked after a set amount of time, and we'd both say it at the same time. All of my attention was on her… At least until the hospital staff found us hiding in the gardens.

_But if Papika was here… what was she doing? _

"Papika, come back!" came a new voice entirely. One I felt a little mad just hearing. I knew I'd see the magenta-haired scientist Hidaka, but I wasn't quite expecting his hand to appear first, sticking right through my neck. I couldn't feel it at all, but I couldn't help exclaiming "Crapping hell!" as I leapt away from him. It was a little odd, he was still clearer than most of the people in the background, but he wasn't quite as crisp an image as Papika.

Papika's big blue eyes met his gleaming glasses, and she began to beg to let her stay. I knew it was because she wanted to see me and Cocona and play a game with us, but what she said had nothing to do with that.

"But I can smell it! It's really close!" Papika said to him. _Smell it? Smell what? _I sniffed the air. I wasn't really expecting anything to happen, but I caught the smell of begonias, which was a surprise. I wasn't expecting to catch a scent of anything in this world at all. _But it can't be just that though… _I tried sniffing a little more. Still begonia's… _No wait… _I breathed out through my mouth, and inhaled slowly through my nose, in little bursts. _There's something else here, too… _I couldn't place it, but I _knew _that smell…

"I don't care about that right now, this place is crawling with Asclepius spies, and we can't afford to let them get you."

"Nooo!" Papika was about to run away again, and memory or not, I was ready to shoot a wire at Hidaka for upsetting her... But as he placed a hand on her shoulder, to hold her in place, his face softened. He ducked down next to her, so he was eye-level with Papika, and spoke to her kindly, "I'm sorry. I know you want to play, and you can smell something important to our mission, but it's not safe for you to be here right now. You can play with Buu when we get back to Flip Flap, okay?"

That... made me lower my hand from my weapon belt. _Is... Hidaka being _nice _to her? _Papika still looked upset, and turned to look towards me and Cocona again, but she sighed, defeated, and agreed to go back to base with Hidaka and Buu.

As I watched them walk away, they both began to fade. Heck, the whole scene around me was dissolving, as mist swallowed the world again, and I stood alone.

I wasn't sure how I felt about just having witnessed a moment of Papika's life like that. It answered a question I'd wondered about before, sure, but... I don't know. It was… odd.

Then I had another thought, _is that what it was like for Cocona and Papika when they went through Irodori-senpai's memories? _They thought that they'd managed to change something in her life by being there though, whereas Papika didn't seem to hear, see, or react to me in any way or form. _I didn't change anything by being there, __did I? _The idea scared me.

But seeing myself with Cocona there, I felt a little happy. Not just because I got to live through that memory again, but because it proved that I met Cocona first.

_**((See? You were there first. Cocona should be yours...))**_

_Yeah... she sho- NO! _I shook my head hard, as if I could shake that damn voice out of it. _You left me alone! You were gone!__ I was free of you! _

_**((But you saw the evidence... Cocona should be yours, now... Switch with me...))**_

"I refuse!" I kept shifting around on the spot, agitating my ribs, and cursing myself for moving. Although the voice seemed to be coming from inside my own head, I _swear _it was coming from the mist at the same time. Maybe it was just something about the fact everything was grey and blurry, but I thought there were shapes moving in the mist. Shifting. "Leave me alone!" I shouted as the voice laughed. _Where is it?! _I activated my visor, and saw the mess of coloured lines. _Crap! _I was about to put it away, when I noticed something... Although there were green, blue, yellow and red lines all over, there still appeared to be _some _data getting through... For example, all those red lines? As I moved my head, all of the green, yellow and blue ones sat still, but the red? That changed. _I can find it!_

"You can't hide from me!" I shouted into the wall of mist. The only response I got was laughter. _Screw you!_

I turned until the scramble of red lines appeared to be in front of me, and clicked my visor off. I squinted, but there definitely _was _a shape in there. My hand was at my weapon belt, ready to fire. The shape came closer, and I could see a pair of red eyes glinting at me. I smirked. _I've got you now..._

I still had no idea how the hell to activate Hidaka's damn explosive wire thing, so I was a little annoyed I couldn't do that, but at least I could actually attack this stupid thing that's been messing with me and hurting my friends.

I fired both wires, just as the shape stepped out of the mist…

And they passed straight through my target.

_That should have hit!_

I pressed the button to retract the wires, only for them to catch in mid-air. _What the…_ I barely had time to think that line, before something rose out of the mist in front of me, a thick brown wall… or maybe the wall had been there the whole time and was just invisible, as my wires stayed exactly where they were when it rose. I pressed the buttons a few more times, and when my wires finally came back to me, I was surrounded.

Trapped.

Or almost.

There was one opening in this new place. I ran towards it, only for some bars to shoot up from the ground when I would have been free in a couple of steps, so I ended up smacking into them.

"Ow…" I said, and rubbed my face where I was certain there was now a rod-shaped red mark. With my other hand, I reached out for one of the bars, and was surprised to find that they weren't cold and smooth, like I was expecting. They were… rough to touch, like tree bark. Still kinda solid though. I tried to pull it to see if I could break it, but that wasn't happening. I wanted to voice my frustrations, but all that came out was a little growl. _Let me out!_

No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't get my vocal cords to really work, beyond making a few vague noises. Annoyance quickly gave way to despair. I got the feeling that there should have been someone with me right now, but I… I couldn't think who. No matter how hard I tried to think of a person, I just… couldn't. Nothing came to mind. No one appeared.

_I'm stuck here… forever…_

It was almost surprising how heavy I suddenly felt. I took steps away from the bars. Away from the freedom I was so close to, and sat with my back against one of the brown walls. It was dark in here. The only light came from the barred opening I was too weak to escape from. I pulled my knees up, and wrapped my arms around them. Not because it was cold in here… But as a desperate attempt to comfort myself…

It wasn't working.

_All alone and trapped…_

_Have I done something wrong? Have I hurt someone?_

That was the vague feeling I had, along with my head whispering the same thing. Taunting. Telling me that I'd made some sort of mistake, and that this whole mess was all my fault.

_But… I haven't done anything wrong. _Or I didn't think so at least. No matter how far I tried to reach into my memories, even those of a couple of minutes ago, nothing came to me. _It wasn't like this though… I know it wasn't. I was here with someone! And… They gave me something important… _

_I think… _

The more I tried to remember, the fuzzier they became. Something I could almost touch with my fingertips, was suddenly flung a million miles out of my reach. _But why?_

_Why am I here?_

Tears had begun to fall down my cheeks before I knew it, and I hid my face. Crying over something I had lost, and didn't have a single memory of. It felt like a part of my soul had been torn away. Something I'd never known had existed, until it was suddenly gone… And I wanted nothing more than for it to come back.

_But it won't… It can't…_

_This is my life now…_

Along with my sadness, I could feel myself growing weary… Tired…

So very tired…

My bones began to ache. I rose my head, the tears still falling, and it looked a little like the skin was coming looser every second, as if my tears were secretly what was holding my body together. Soon veins were visible, and my skin began to dry and form cracks. The hair on my head, or what little of it I could see that caught the light had lost its bright colour, and was becoming a weak grey. Somehow, I found the energy to raise my fingers to touch it. Wiry and messy, like it was made of straw… I lowered my hand, still holding it out to the light that streamed through the bars, and watched. Watched as my fingers began to wither. For some reason it was then, that I realised I was aging.

If I could remember any life I'd have previously, I got the feeling now is when it would have been flashing before my eyes… but there was nothing there. All I could do was watch, as I grew older, with no life to remember. _Did I have _anything _before today? _Even if I did, there was no hope I could ever see it again…

I began to mourn for a life I'd never lived…

* * *

Suddenly… things. Light… and dark… The ground was dark. The place I was in was dark. But the light… That was near.

I walked to it. It was far away… And stripy.

I didn't understand.

I reached the stripes in the light. I touched them. They were hard. I could move a hand between them. I could almost touch the light…

But the stripes were stopping me.

_How did I get here?_

_Why can't I get out?_

…_Who am I?_

* * *

Time passed. I don't know how much, but I was bigger. Maybe it was lots. Maybe it wasn't much at all.

It was like this for a long time. Dark, and light. Trapped. I could see things beyond the stripes now. Little green strands, and tiny white flowers. They would come up to my ankles… Or maybe that thing above my left ankle. I don't know where that came from. It's always been here. Changed with me. Grew with me.

"Hello."

I heard a noise. Something new.

It scared me. This place was quiet. No noise other than my own breathing. Or my footsteps when I walked to the back of the dark. I didn't like it there. The dark scared me more than the new noise, so I didn't run away.

"Hello?"

The same noise came again… I think. The tone had changed slightly. I looked towards the light and the green. Where I heard the noise…

And saw… something like me.

Small, like me. Similar shape, too. But her hair was short and blue. Mine was long, pink and messy.

I was curious… but also scared.

"It's okay. I won't hurt you."

The noise happened when it opened its mouth. _Talking. It was talking. _I don't know where that word came from. I tried to make the same sounds and opened my mouth. My throat felt funny. It… rumbled, as I made noise.

"Heh… loh…" I tried to copy the talking. I didn't get far.

The thing like me seemed surprised. Then its face changed. The ends of its mouth turned upwards.

"Is it hard for you to talk?" their mouth moved as more sounds came out. _Talking. _It wanted to talk to me, and seemed to be waiting for something in return. _But… what? _I felt… dizzy. Unwell. I felt like I was going to fall. I grabbed one of the stripes.

"Are you okay?"

More talking. I couldn't understand. I closed my eyes. _How… How do I talk? I need… I need… _I shook my head. It was too hard. I opened my eyes. The thing looked… sad. I felt hurt looking at it.

"Is there anything I can do to help you?"

I watched its mouth as it talked. I tried to move mine in shapes like that. I could try and talk, but I don't know if they would… work. If they could be understood.

I slumped down. Sat, and faced away from the light. Staring into the dark. This was too hard for me. Too much…

The thing's shadow moved in the light at my feet. Like it looked down at me. Then it turned behind. Looked at me again. And became small.

Something moved around my shoulders. It scared me. I wanted to escape, but… something about it felt… good. _A hug. _Those words came to me, too.

_Warm. _It felt nice and warm. There was a smell, too. One I felt like I should know.

"I'm really sorry, but I have to go now. I'll try and come back and visit you!"

It moved away. I watched as the shadow ran away, and my tiny world grew colder...

And I was alone again.

* * *

So much time had passed between now and then, that I thought that girl was a hallucination. Something my brain made up, to try and combat my eternal loneliness here…

I was bigger now. Older. But the girl, when she returned, had hardly changed at all.

"I'm back!"

She talked to me, like she did back then. She sounded happy. I couldn't understand what she was saying, but her words made me feel happy too. It was so nice to see her again.

"I learned a really good story! Do you want to hear it?"

I still didn't know what the sounds of her talking meant, but she seemed to know that hearing her talk made me happy. She spoke a lot. I don't know how much time had passed, but it felt like it was rushing by. She moved with her talking. She did actions, like waved her arms, and walk, and pull faces. Some words repeated themselves, and as she moved, I learned their meanings.

Before I knew it, her 'story' was over. When she finished, she stood up.

"I have to go again, but I'll try and come back!"

She said some of those words last time she talked, and like before, she left. _"I'll try and come back"_

And I was alone again.

...But this time, I knew it wasn't forever.

* * *

It felt like that kept happening to me… over and over… I grew young and old… young and old… For reasons I don't know, and for a very long time. The girl would come and go, and see me in different stages of life. If she thought it was strange, she never said so. Every time, she had a new story for me. I would listen, and she would act it out. Eventually, I began to understand her talking, and what her words meant. When she was gone, I practiced, so I could say them right. I wanted to show her that I could talk, just like her…

But it was a long time before I could do that… There was a time when I'd grown young and old, over and over, without seeing her once…

* * *

_Missing… Something's missing… _How long had it been? I don't know. I was… here, where I have always been. I felt… hollow. There was nothing. Nothing but the light, and the dark.

I understood that I was imprisoned. I understood there was no way out.

I understood I was alone.

It hurt.

I hugged my knees. _Why… Why am I here?_

In all the time I've spent here, one thing from a very distant life came back to me. A faint smell of flowers.

That was all I could remember.

* * *

My life had been like that for so long, I couldn't imagine anything else if I tried…

I was waiting for something I could barely remember...

Everything felt wrong...

I hugged my knees, praying every day, that maybe things would change...

But they wouldn't... I know they wouldn't...

For what felt like an eternity, I sat there. Just... waiting. Losing hope. I didn't want to continue like this. There wasn't a reason. I was just here...

And I wanted it to stop...

_Please... Let this stop..._

"Who are you?"

My ears twitched, and I let out a soft gasp. _That voice... _It had been so long now since I heard it. I couldn't tell you how many times I had lived and died since the last time...

_But she came back... Like she always did..._

The heaviness in my heart seemed to lift. I raised my head slowly. It had been a long time... I didn't want to believe that I had begun to imagine things. I wanted this to be real...

_Please be real..._

Everything was blurry. It was a while before I could see clearly. There was a shape beyond the stripes. _No... the bars._

_The bars of my prison._

It was misty outside, but it began to clear... And the girl was there. Her head tilted, curious. Big eyes, the colour of my prison looked down at me. _Do you remember me? _Maybe she didn't... It had been so long after all... _But she came back. _

I stood up and walked to her. My legs felt a little wobbly, because it had been so long since I'd done that... But I had to. I had to know she was real. As I stepped closer, I got that faint scent of flowers again.

_She came back! She's really here!_

"You were a big girl before, an old lady before that, and a baby before that..." She was talking... And this time I could understand her. But at the same time, I almost couldn't hear her. All I could think was 'she came back'. _Is she real? She has to be real! _I slowly lifted a hand, to try and touch her. Her own hand was lifting to meet mine... and they touched. Our fingers and our thumbs all lined up... Solid. Connected.

"...and now, you're the same as me." She said. My heart was beating fast, excited. _You're real! You're back! And... I can understand you! _

I turned the corners of my mouth up, in a gesture I learnt was a smile. I gave her a big one. The biggest I could manage!

"I'm Cocona." She said, her hand back down by her side. "And you?"

My hand had fallen too. It took a little while to realise she'd asked me a question, and that she was telling me her name. _Names are important. But... who am I? _I wish I had a name... But I didn't.

"Dunno." I said. I'd practiced words. I think I could speak okay.

"Don't you remember?" the girl, Cocona, asked me. Again, it took a moment for me to hear her and understand what she was asking me. '_Don't you remember?' _No. I don't. I don't know if I had a name before... All I knew was that I had grown big and small, old and young, over and over and over... But Cocona seemed to know that. _She remembered me... _

I wished I could give her a better answer, but words were still new to me. "No. Nothing."

It was then that my stomach made a noise. It had happened sometimes before. _Hunger. _When that happened, I would go into the dark part of the prison. There was water and food there. It got rid of those feelings.

Cocona laughed at the noise my stomach made. It was a small laugh. She seemed to find it funny.

"I'll be right back." She said, and she left me. As I watched her turn away, I lifted a hand to reach for her... And then I realised what she said 'I'll be right back'. She would come back, but _soon. _

I waited.

She returned.

"I saw these earlier. I've had them a few times, they're good to eat!" She was holding fruit in her arms. Fruit like the ones in the dark part of the cave. She was holding them out for me to take. I grabbed them, and sat down. Eager, I tore the skin away, and ate the flesh of the fruit inside. Juicy and sweet.

Very sweet.

"Feel better now?" Cocona had sat against the bars of my prison, with her back to mine. Her voice was near my head. _She's still here. _

"A little." I said. I wasn't very hungry any more, but I still felt strange. I don't _think _it was bad-strange, but I didn't know yet.

"I'll stay with you until you're all better."

"Huh?" _She would... stay this time? _

"It won't be lonely if we're together."

_Lonely... _That was a word I knew very well. Cocona didn't say it much, but it didn't take long for me to learn that one.

"Really?!" I asked. I couldn't believe she would be here with me for some time.

She sounded a little shy as she nodded "yeah," but it made me gasp. I felt warm and... _cared for. _At this point, another word came to my head. 'Friend'. Cocona said this word a lot in her stories. All of the people in them had met other people, and they helped and cared about each other. They were 'friends'.

I got very excited. That word made me feel happy. _Friends! _"Then... Please! Be friends with me!" I wish I knew more words to say how I felt then, but sadly 'happy' was the only one I knew, and it was far too weak. My heart felt big, and my chest was warm, and Cocona... She was so nice!

Cocona's big eyes were shining as I asked her the question.

"Sure!" She said. My happiness grew a whole lot, as she said that. We reached our hands out again, at the same time. They met, in the air, but this time, our fingers didn't line up. They... fell between each other. We gently pressed our fingers against the back of the other's hand, in a squeeze.

We both closed our eyes and laughed. _I'm so, so happy! I have a friend__!_

There was a glow I could see through the darkness of my eyelids, and I opened my eyes again. There were two lights near Cocona, one from her leg, and another from her left hand. There was a small glowing orange rock in it, like an egg. Small and pretty. The colour made me think of the stories Cocona told me. About the 'dragons'.

But after that was another noise.

If I was alone, it would have scared me, but Cocona was here. She made me feel brave...

But I didn't need to be brave.

The bars of my prison were... moving away. There was now a great big gap in them... One I could step through...

_I was free..._

…But then I was falling.

I was so scared, I let go of Cocona's hand, and looked down.

Darkness.

Endless darkness.

I looked back up, and tried to reach for Cocona's hand again, but she'd gotten so far away from me in seconds. We were both falling, far, far away…

* * *

"GAH!" I clutched my head, as it felt like my mind was suddenly ripped away from the scene I'd just experienced. I looked at my hair, to see it was blonde and short.

_Yayaka. I'm... myself again. _It was... weird. I mean, I'm Yayaka, I've _always_ been Yayaka... But for a while I was young and old and had pink hair and had short arms and... _I'm getting a friggin' headache..._

"What the crap was that?" I asked no one in particular.

"Something I wanted you to understand," came an answer I wasn't expecting to get.

I whirled around, to face the speaker, only to end up flat on my ass fom moving around so fast. I guess the sudden change from being small, to being big hadn't quite caught up to me yet. I felt a little clumsy, with my arms and legs being longer than they were just moments ago... And that was just phyisically. Emotionally... I'd just experienced sadness, and loneliness far, far crippling than anything I'd ever felt before, and not just once. _Lifetimes, _of it, broken by the few times I saw... a young Cocona.

_And I had pink hair... _

I closed my eyes, and kept them closed. Even though the only thing around me was grey mist, it felt like it was too much to look at. That one voice that answered me almost felt too much to hear.

"Those were memories of Papikana's," came the voice again. Although my eyes were closed, I frowned. _I know who's talking..._

I heard footsteps, and with them came the faint scent of wildflowers. If I looked up, I knew I'd be seeing the rose-petal red eyes of Mimi's.

"Why did you show me them?" I asked, grumbling.

"Because you've been given the option to switch with something else, too."

I wondered how Mimi could know about that, but maybe she'd seen the shadow when it attacked Papika. _Hell, it was probably written all over my face, that I knew something about what happened..._

Either way, she continued: "There is a dark force in Pure Illusion, which preys on the selfish wishes of the people who enter it. Living here for so long, and having been possessed by it in the past, has allowed me to know what to look for... And it wanted to hurt my best friend...

"I don't know what your reasons are for being given the offer, Yayaka, but I'm asking you... please, don't hate Papika."

_'Don't hate Papika'...? _

"I can't stay for long. You're in the right world now, but... you'll have to be careful. Although there's normally no physical danger here, that's no reason to let your guard down. It can be just as deadly as any other place in Pure Illusion. It's not a world I like to stay in for long, if I can help it."

That... confused me a little. _Not one she'd like to stay in if she can help it? _I opened my eyes. "Am I still awake?"

Mimi nodded. It looked like she was about to speak again, when heavy footsteps began to thunder deep in the mist. I spun around, taking my eyes off of the red-eyed woman, trying to work out where the noise was coming from exactly. Everything seemed to echo all of a sudden, and I had no idea where it was coming from. Fear was starting to pulse through me.

I could barely hear Mimi's voice over the sound of the monster in the mist. "This world will play with your mind. Try to scare you, and make you feel alone…" As if to prove her point, the land at my feet began to crack, and the echoing footsteps only grew louder. There was a loud, bursting, roar which I felt should have shattered everything around us. I could feel the power of it, vibrating through my bones, and upsetting my damaged ribs, leaving me feeling like I Was about to black out from the pain. My heart began to pound furiously, and my already-painful breathing quickened, as I desperately tried to hold onto what little courage I had left. Mimi seemed to notice that I was hurt at that point.

"I can send you to a safer part of the world, and heal you there, but only for a moment. It's… best not to be around people too long here."

There was another roar, and I saw some piercing yellow eyes like headlights, staring out at me from the mist. They tilted to the side, as if they were curious.

Or planning to leap at me. _I can't fight that thing right now!_

I was getting ready to run, as the eyes shifted again, righting themselves. Heavy paws were dragging themselves along the ground, as the thing in the mist slowly came closer. A few dark claws, as long as kitchen knives peeked out from the smoky grey wall, slowly followed by a gaping maw, filled with teeth the goblin guy in that other world would probably have loved to have gotten his hands on.

The teeth and claws suddenly spiked forward, as it lunged at me. I wanted to duck out of the way, and for the second time, almost blacked out from pain. Bright spots and dark stars danced in front of my eyes as it felt like someone had just harshly yanked barbed wire all along my right side. _I can't escape… I'm done for…_

It was at that point, I felt a hand on my shoulder, shoving me down, and my purple eyes met a pair of rose-red, and Mimi sent the both of us tumbling through a Hole to another part of the world…

* * *

_Authors note: Man, every time I swear I know where this fic is going, my head gets a ton of other ideas and all things sorta happen at once... I really wanted to include a world heavily inspired by a video game at some point, but I don't think that's gonna happen now. Darn brain._

_As you may have noticed towards the end of Papika's memories that Yayaka experienced, I took a few notes from the start of episode 13 of the anime, with Cocona's and Papika's meeting then, but again, I changed a point or two around, to help it fit the story I've ended up telling. I'm hoping it all makes sense and isn't too confusing. I wanted to keep it kind of vague what was going on to start with, and I'm a tad worried I may have made it a little TOO vague. __At the end of those memories too, I try and explain how Papika got back to Earth. Although Mimi gave Cocona to Papikana to hold, they somehow got separated while Papikana ended up in the tree and went through her many lifetimes. The Head Priest of Asclepius could have used Elpis again, at his own risk, to try and get Mimi back, but only found Baby Cocona. He dismissed Papika, as Cocona was the one related to Mimi, and bought her back to Earth with him, creating a false life for her, where she could be raised by her 'grandmother'._

_Cocona had dreams throughout her life on Earth though of Pure Illusion, and sometimes, she'd encounter this pink haired girl in the tree… When Cocona freed Papika(na) from the tree-cage, Cocona opened up a Hole and got separated, so Papika fell back to Earth and found Flip Flap, and Cocona just woke up one day at home, but she found a small orange stone in her hand…_


	18. Chapter 17

_Authors note: Okay, if this friggin' sixth entire chapter re-write works (seriously, I've scrapped around 24k worth of words trying to get things to WORK), then this is the video game chapter I mentioned a while ago. It might start with lines from another well-known game, but the rest of it won't have a single thing to do with that. In fact, I'd be very surprised if someone _did _guess the game I took inspiration from for this chapter, even though it has a 'cult classic' status on Sega Genesis/Mega Drive. If anyone guesses it then 'You got a secret bonus point.' Yes, that line might be a hint._

_Right, on with the show!_

* * *

My eyes were closed when I became conscious again, but I must have moved because I heard a voice.

"Hey, you're finally awake"

…_That's not Mimi talking to me… Where am I?_

Slowly, I forced my eyes open. Everything was red. As I slowly became aware of things, I could just about make out a rhythmic clanking. _What is this, a roller coaster? _I wasn't going to get my answer any time soon. After everything I've been through lately, I'm sick of the colour red. I closed my eyes, and I could feel my body starting to wind down again. Limbs getting heavy… I guess tiredness from running around a million Pure Illusion worlds with barely any rest or food was catching up to me. It was comfortable here. There was barely any pain in my ribs, which was amazing, too.

_Maybe I can try and fall asleep here… Just a little rest…_

"You were trying to cross the border, right?" The strange voice said again. I tried to ignore it, but I couldn't. In fact, they carried on like that for a while. It pissed me off. _Okay, fine. I'm not sleeping any time soon… _I opened my eyes again, but this time I took in my surroundings beyond 'everything is red'.

…And I only had questions.

First thing I noticed, was that Mimi was nowhere to be seen. I'd guess she just dumped me here and left me to it, after all, she _did _say it'd be best not to be around people in this world…

But honestly, I didn't think I was going to have a problem with that.

Because beyond myself, there wasn't a single person to be seen.

Yet, I wasn't alone here.

Well, clearly, I wasn't alone here, I've had a voice talking to me this whole time, but it was a little freaky to see what it had come from. Apart from me, there was space enough for four others in this place. And all the seats were occupied by puppets, as tall as I wasF.

The one that had spoken to me to start with (and was still droning on now) seemed to be made entirely of wood, but incredibly well carved and painted. It looked like a soldier in a fantasy world. His helmet covered his head, leaving his face exposed, revealing bright eyes, and light stubble on his chin, which rose and dropped as he spoke. His… 'clothes' I guess were what looked like a tunic and metal armour (it was kinda hard to tell. The helmet had very clear shapes cut into it, that didn't look like hair, but the guy's body seemed to have something shining painted on it, despite being entirely flat).

The other occupants in the room weren't as well detailed as the soldier puppet. In fact, it looked like they had things wrong with them. One was painted like a peasant in rough patchwork clothes, and moved ones of its hands over one of its legs, which was on backwards, and seemed to be twitching uncontrollably. Another was painted like a pirate, in long coat and dark trousers, complete with peg leg, eyepatch and a parrot on its shoulder. Every now and then, a voice came from that direction, which I couldn't understand over the solider talking, but I thought I heard the word 'treasure'. I thought it was odd how quiet it was, and wondered what was wrong with it, when the pirate's mouth opened, but what came out was a loud, harsh 'SQUARK!' the parrot turned to the pirate, and its beak opened and closed, and heard the grumbling again.

The last one… was barely painted or detailed at all. It looked like someone had taken a plain wooden art dummy and wanted to paint it, but only managed a few clumsy strokes in places, before giving up with the idea and throwing it aside to work on something else. Or at least, that was the picture I got of it, seeing it sitting, hunched over, staring down at the floor. There wasn't a single facial feature to be seen on it, but something about it… It looked so dejected, that I actually started to get a little worried about it.

"Hey, are you okay?" I asked the dejected one. Its head twitched in my direction a little, but it didn't rise to look at me.

The soldier puppet was still rambling on about whatever-the-crap, so it probably hadn't noticed me at all. Just as I was about to question if I'd ever spoken out loud, the peasant puppet with the weird leg spoke up.

"That one won't talk to you. No mouth."

Hearing that only made me feel more worried about the badly-painted puppet. _But I have someone here talking to me. I can get information. _"What's going on here?" I asked.

The peasant looked around at the other puppets in the room before turning back to me. "We were all captured by the master of this world." The puppet's expression couldn't change, but its voice held a hint of fear to it. "Defective creations aren't allowed here."

He said that, like it explained everything, but for me, it only raised questions. I was about to ask one, when all of a sudden, the rhythmic clanking stopped. The peasant puppet jumped up in his spot.

"We're here! We can't be! Not now!" He seemed to want to run away, but his backwards-facing leg, just kept pulling him back whenever the regular one tried to take a step forward.

"What's going on? Why are you so jumpy?!" I was starting to feel panicked myself, just seeing how distressed the peasant was.

"We're defective! We're going to be destroyed!" His voice came out as an odd wail. "There's nothing we can do!" He started to bang on the top of the red vehicle (which I hadn't even realised was there), and 'clawed' at it with wooden fingers, as if trying to pry it apart. No matter how hard he tried, no damage to the vehicle was done. Realising his desperate attempts were futile, he hunched over, and his voice was thick with sadness. "We're going to burn!"

_Burn?! _That made me stand up. As if on cue, I heard pipes hissing, and then a fire, roaring to life. Maybe it's because the thing we were trapped in was red too, but the temperature in this place seemed to climb a million degrees. My panic was about to give away to pure terror, and although I could feel my chest expanding as I breathed, it wasn't long before it felt like rope was tightening along it, forcing me to struggle for breath.

_I can't burn… I need to save Yuyu…_

_I need to get out of here!_

Maybe it was just instinct by now, but my hands immediately went to my weapon belt, to see if I had a solution, and thankfully I did. I'm not entirely sure how I forgot about my rockets at all until now, but I was pretty glad I did, because I still had a couple left, and that meant I could probably bust out of here.

"Get back!" I ordered, trying to use one arm to shove all the puppets behind me, before I shot the wall farthest away from everyone. Now I think about it, it was kinda dumb to have launched something explosive in such a small space, as there was now black smoke everywhere, but as it cleared, it revealed a huge gaping hole, leading to a lush green world and the bright blue sky outside.

The puppets didn't wait. They shoved past me, one by one, jumping from the hole and into freedom. I heard the peasant said "Thank you!" to me, and a squark from the pirate puppet, as they rushed past. The solider was still continuing his monologue, which didn't surprise me. As I was about to jump out myself, I realised there was one puppet that _didn't _rush past me. Although I was still feeling terrified, and wanted nothing more than to get out of there, I turned to face the dejected puppet, and grabbed its hand. "Let's go!"

I was about to jump out the hole with the puppet, when I heard a whoosh and crackle of fire, as it began to engulf the vehicle. I looked up, and although I wanted nothing more than to move, I found myself rooted to the spot. _I'm too late. I should have left without it... _Images of melting faces began to flood my mind _I... I should have tried to save them... I was too late... _I could feel the intense heat prickling on my skin. _Maybe I deserve this..._

Suddenly, the puppet that remained in the vehicle moved. It seemed to leap up from its seat a lot faster than it looked capable of, and charged for the hole in the side of the vehicle. I didn't realise quite how tight my grip on its hand was, until I was yanked along with it.

About a second later, bright tongues of fire swallowed the red vehicle whole, and it hung there in the sky, like a sun that was falling to Earth. _Falling... _

_I'm falling! _

Suddenly awareness struck me. I was looking at the ground, which was solid blocks of green, and it was rising to meet me quickly. Before I had time for that to really register in my head, the puppet tugged my hand, pulling me closer to it, and wrapping one arm around me, and it landed neatly.

_I'm... alive... _I tried to take a couple of deep breaths, to calm down and take that fact in. It was then that I noticed that my ribs weren't hurting half as much as I felt they should be, but they were still slightly agitating. _How did Mimi fix them anyway? _My answer came in the form of my hair, some of which can fallen from being tied up at the top of my head, as it drifted in front of my face. _It's longer than usual... She must have sped up time for me, like she did with Papika in Pure Illusion..._

When I felt able to, I gently pried myself free from the puppet's grip, and stood next to it. In proper daylight, I got a better look at its messy paint job. Most of it was a mix of careless splashes of black against the body, and what looked like patches of red stained into the wood, spreading from the hands and feet, as if someone had dipped them in blood. As I looked up from one of the hands though, I realised that its left arm was a different colour to the rest of its body, a deeper brown, as if it that one limb was made from different wood entirely. It also had a mark on it, near the shoulder, a dark blue ring. I went to look at its face then, and was about to thank it for saving me, but my breath caught in my throat.

_It has no face. _

The peasant puppet had told me it didn't have a mouth, but... I wasn't expecting that. I hadn't met many inhabitants, but all of them seemed to be nicely shaped and carved and painted, all of them lovingly crafted... And this one looked like someone didn't even bother with it. Just slapped some paint on it, and chucked it aside. _Is that enough for you to be classed as 'defective' in this world? _The thought made me mad. _All someone would have to do is spend a little more time on it. It's not that difficult…_

Somehow, my brain completely skipped over the fact that we were standing in the middle of what I could only think to describe as a busy clockwork town. Every building seemed to be made up of bright pastel colours, soft yellows, oranges and pinks, with contrasting boldly coloured roof tiles. Most of them were boxy, a few had rounded tops, or domes on top of them. There was a constant clicking noise, like gears grinding together, and it took me a moment to realise it came from the inhabitants around us. These guys weren't puppets exactly, some were wind-up toy animals, like little ducks and cats, that clattered around on wooden legs. Others looked like clowns on unicycles, which wheeled everywhere cackling, or looked like wooden dogs, which barked and jumped around. There were a couple of princess dolls that were having a conversation and laughing… This whole place seemed to be bustling, so _teeming _with activity, it was becoming difficult to see this place as being made up of toys. It felt more like a real-life town.

Without warning, sirens and klaxons started to go off all over.

"ESCAPE! THERE'S BEEN AN ESCAPE!"

Startled by the sudden blaring noise, my fear spiked again. I wasn't the only one effected. Upon hearing the alarm, the whole mood in the town shifted. The princesses, who were laughing, suddenly looked very distressed. The barking dogs were whimpering, and trying to hide in alleyways between the colourful buildings, with the cats and ducks rushing to join them, stacking on top of each other. Unlike the others though, the unicycle clowns became more energetic. Their cackles became menacing, and their once joyful smiles, became wicked grins. Arms that were waving around in the air were now posed, ready to strike. I gulped, trying to swallow my nerves. _We need to get out of here._

"Come on!" I said, pulling the puppet with me, as I tried to run for an alleyway before it filled up with animals. I got there a lot faster than I thought, and soon discovered there's a reason the animals were stacking themselves on top of each other, I ended up smacking into what I thought was a path to the rest of the town. What it turned out to be, was just an incredibly well-painted board.

Although it hurt, thankfully, it was my left side that took most of the damage, so I didn't upset my ribs too much. That didn't stop be feeling dazed and confused. _A solid wall? _The puppet I was pulling with me stopped before coming into contact with it. Its head tilted to the side a little, as if trying to ask what I was doing. I ignored its silent question, and instead ran in the opposite direction, feet hitting hard green boards, only to have to force myself to skid to a stop about two seconds later, as I almost barrelled of the edge of the world: there was a sheer, sudden drop barely an inch from my feet. _What's going on with this world? _I glanced up briefly, wondering if there was even a sky up there, and saw a series of spotlights up there, shining down on us.

I vaguely remember hearing someone quoting a line to me, something about 'all the world's a stage', and I thought that summed up this place pretty perfectly.

_Not the time to be thinking about that, Yayaka! _I cursed myself for getting distracted, and had a quick look around. To my right, the unicycle clowns were still wheeling around, but some of them seemed to have noticed just how much me and the badly-painted puppet stuck out, compared to everything else in the world, and were slowly coming towards us. To the left, the town buildings seemed to disappear sharply, but the green floor and blue sky continued, with no danger in sight.

Putting on a burst of speed, I charged, wanting to get out of the town as quickly as I could. I kept my grip on the badly-painted puppet's hand (I should give it a name… I'll just call it 'Puppet', I don't really have time to think up something better) as I pulled it along behind me. A bunch of origami cranes I hadn't noticed before, fluttered up in a flurry, to get away from us as we tore away from the town.

The further away we got, the more details I noticed about the world. Like the sky for example. It wasn't just flat blue, and didn't have a natural gradient to it, like the real world, or even any Pure Illusion worlds I'd been to before: this one was kinda unique. Okay, it might still be blue, but it was constructed entirely out of patches of fabric and strips of ribbon, all sewn together. It carried on like that in an arc over us, reaching to the spotlight-suns in the sky. They moved too, as we ran away from the town, like a recurring background in an old cartoon, like they someone was winding a handle, and they were scrolling along, over and over again. All of the blue patches were uniquely decorated too, some had clouds embroidered neatly onto them, a few had white cotton balls glued to them to represent clouds, others seemed to be made up of two shades of blue strips woven together in a checkerboard pattern, one had a sun with sunglasses painted on it… and one had what looked like a clothing tag still attached to it. Although it was kinda funny seeing the sky seemingly announce it was 'DRY CLEAN ONLY' over and over again, it nearly stopped me in my tracks the first time around, just because I couldn't believe what I was seeing.

The more we ran, the more I wondered if the stage _had _an 'other end' to it, or if this whole world was some weird hand-made treadmill. If it was the latter, that would explain why none of the unicycle clowns seemed to have disappeared, maybe they'd dropped off the face of the world. _Could that happen to us if we're not careful? _

"We've found the runaways! Destroy them!"

_DO-DOOM!_

"Crapping hell!" I exclaimed, letting go of Puppet's hand, startled by the sudden appearance of a rocket that slammed into the ground two inches from me. Scared, by both my thought about the treadmill world, and the fact we'd been found, I turned back to look at Puppet. It was sitting pretty much where I'd left it. _Why aren't you moving? Don't you care we're under attack here?!_

"Come on! You wanna get destroyed?! Run with me!" I called back to it. I hadn't known Puppet for too long, but I felt a little attached to it already. I mean, it _did_ save my life earlier, but… it felt like a little more than that to me.

It was a relief to see Puppet get up and run away from a rocket, which just crashed (_DO-DOOM!_) right where it was sitting barely a second ago. Heck, it was kinda nice to have it running alongside me. It's a bit like I was here with Toto or Yuyu again. _Where the hell is, she? _Well, I guess with this place looking like it was pretty much one-way, it wouldn't be too long until we found out…

_DO-DOOM! _The assault of rockets continued as we ran along the world, and a horrible thought occurred to me. _It can't be endless, can it? _As if the world could read my mind, there was a click, and all of a sudden, the land in front of us tilted upwards sharply. It nearly broke my pace, and I almost fell face-first into the hill, which would have given the rockets an easy target. _But I'm not going down that easy! _Determined, I ran up the hill, taking short steps, so I could keep my speed up. Whoever was firing the rockets seemed to be taking a different tactic now, aiming for where I was going to be, instead of aiming where I was a moment before. It nearly threw me off a couple of times, but I was able to dodge them okay. I even looked back a couple of times to check on Puppet, and saw they were doing just as well as I was. _For someone this world considers faulty, they seem to be holding up._

The rain of rockets continued, as the land became a jagged zigzag of mountains.

_DO-DOOM! DO-DOOM! _

"Is this meant to be difficult?" I shouted, feeling cocky. I wasn't sure anyone would hear me, but there were a couple of announcements from nowhere, and the rockets seemed to be under someone's control, so I'd guess we were being watched at the very least.

_DO-DOOM! DO-DOOM!_

Going downhill between the 'predictive' rocket strikes was almost like doing a slalom course on some of the skiing games I saw in the arcade, when I was trying to find games Yuyu could play. Considering how well I was doing here; I was starting to wish I'd suggested trying them out, even if Yuyu might have problems with the controls, I'd probably have won them, no trouble.

_DO-DOOM! DO-DOOM! _

_DO-DONK!_

'_Donk?' _The sound came from behind me. _Crap, Puppet didn't get hit, did it? _I didn't quite want to look around, knowing that doing so would mean I'd risk getting hit myself, or at least running into a rocket, but I had to know Puppet was okay. It was a relief to see that was, indeed the case, but that didn't stop the sight of the puppet with a bright blue toy rocket embedded in its left hand any weirder. _It caught that? _I had to admit, I was impressed. Hell, it made me smirk. _These idiots have nothing on us!_

"Is that the best you can do?!" I yelled up, taunting whoever was watching us.

Clearly, it wasn't. Or at least I've managed to annoy them enough to change tactic entirely. The stage clanked and clicked again, becoming entirely flat, and a brick wall thudded down at one end of the stage, and directly behind, caging us. Me and puppet ground to a halt, waiting for whatever this world would throw at us next.

In this case, literally.

From out of the dark void below the spotlights, what looked like a stuffed animal with a comically oversized head was tossed onto the stage. I wanted to look off to the side to see who'd chucked it at us, when it sprung to life. It wobbled around, uncertainly, probably thrown off balance by its forced entrance. It rubbed a thin arm against its head.

"Ouch… That wasn't the dramatic entrance I was hoping for…" It mumbled. Suddenly, it perked up, as if remembering where it was and faced us. The first thing that struck me was how big its eyes were. They gave me the impression of an overly-curious kid with their nose pressed up against a fishbowl, staring at the fish inside. The rest of it however, seemed pretty normal, a brown body with a slightly lighter brown belly, although I had trouble deciding whether it was a cat or a bear.

"They haven't even bothered decorating properly for our epic battle!" the cat-bear exclaimed, holding an arm out dramatically to the 'DRY CLEAN ONLY' label on the 'sky'. It clapped twice, as it gave an order. "Hello! We need a new backdrop here!"

Instantly, the fabric sky rolled itself up from the bottom, and rose into the shadows of the world above. In its place… was nothing but boxes of junk (which wouldn't have looked out of place in Hidaka's lab) hiding amongst crisscross wooden scaffolding that the previous background must have been resting against, so it wouldn't fall flat onto the stage.

The cat-bear waited for a while, still dramatically gesturing to the wooden scaffolding, but nothing happened. After an awkward silence, it yelled, "FINE! We shall fight here, Runaways! My name is Trouble Yama," it said, with a flourishing bow. "And today, I'll gain my master's favour, by handing you over to her. Prepare yourselves!"

With that, Trouble Yama (I'll just call it Yama), spread his arms out, almost like he was going to do star jumps. It honestly wouldn't have surprised me if that was the case, but unfortunately for me, it was nothing that peaceful.

There were tiny fizzes and pops in the air all around me and Puppet, as specks of floating dust, sparked and blazed to life. _Fire! _I instantly jumped to alertness, trying not to freak out, and ended up backing into Puppet, who stood and watched the whole thing without acting. _You're made of friggin' wood! How can you _not _be scared of this?! _

The ghostly blue flickers of fire began to gather around Yama, becoming a burning aura of power. His bulging eyes were glowing, as if someone had flicked a switch and turned some lightbulbs on.

"Let's see how you handle my fireball ramming attack!" Yama said. The cat-bear hopped in place a couple of times, as if trying to make sure even his feet had a fiery aura, before he charged. It took me longer than I would have liked to get myself to move, my brain still seemed stuck somewhere between being frozen in fear, and alert in alarm.

"Get down!" I said, shoving Puppet away, as I awkwardly tried to dive away from Yama's attack. My scramble to get out of the way wasn't quite as effective as it could have been. My steel-capped boots seemed to catch the heat pretty well, to the point of it felt like my flesh would melt into them if I didn't remove them in a hurry. The instant I was able to, I tried to wrench them off before that could happen. I wanted to check on my puppet companion, but I didn't really want to look away from the enemy that was _on fire, _and was probably about to charge again. Part of me was hoping that maybe Yama would just flat-out burn up, and get defeated by its own attack, but the fur on his body didn't seem so much as singed. _Must be immune…_

Yama had reached the other end of the stage, and stopped in his tracks, before he turned on the spot and ran for Puppet. At first, I wondered what the hell he was doing, as I was still struggling with one of my boots, so I would have been the easier target… Or that's what I thought, but Puppet was just flat on the floor, not even moving. The blue toy rocket was still clasped in its left hand.

"What are you doing, you idiot?! You're gonna get hit!" If this damn boot wasn't refusing to come off my foot, I would have gotten up already and tried to pull Puppet out of the way, but that wasn't happening. Even if I hobbled over now, by the time I got there, both of us would end up getting hurt. _But it reacts to orders… In fact, that's the only time it seems to move. _"Get out of there!" I shouted at Puppet, hoping my observation was right.

Upon hearing that last sentence, Puppet's head twitched, and it reacted. It stood up quickly and ran over to the opposite end of the stage the cat-bear was standing… and stopped. Its head twitched a few more times, like a curious bird, before taking a few steps closer to the wooden scaffolding. "What the hell are you doing?!" _You're still a sitting duck! _"I said get out of there!"

"Easy target!" The cat-bear purred, the blue aura around him flickered, as if reacting to his enthusiasm. He leapt towards Puppet, in a superhero pose, looking like a blue meteor streaking across the sky. Annoyingly, it was now that my boot decided to come off, giving me no time to rush over and help Puppet.

"MOVE YOUR ASS!" I screamed, willing the damn puppet to get out of the way. Puppet's head turned a fraction in my direction, as if to show it was listening, and gave me a very small nod. In my anger, the gesture confused me. But when Yama was far too close for my liking, Puppet _finally _got out of the way, taking a couple of almost comical sidesteps.

"Wh—" Yama's question was suddenly cut off as the cat-bear's massive head burst through the wall, shattering the brick in a cloud of russet dust. Yama pulled away, and staggered backwards a few steps, clutching his head. "Pooks! That really hurt…"

I raised my eyebrows. "Okay, I gotta admit, that was a smart idea," I said to Puppet, grinning. Don't ask me how exactly, but as it tilted its head at me, I got the feeling if it had a mouth, it'd be grinning too. _Do I have a bond with it already? _Almost as if in reply to that, I felt a spark of fondness in my chest. But it also made me frown a little. _It feels familiar to me… Why?_

I shook my head. _Not the time to worry about that, Yayaka. _"Let's go!" I said to Puppet, ducking through the gaping gap in the brick wall. Puppet tagged along behind me.

"Hey, wait! That's cheating!" Yama said, one hand reaching out as if to try and call us back.

"Screw you!" I said. Puppet may not have had a mouth, but it clearly agreed with me, as it chucked the toy rocket at the cat-bear's massive head. I smirked, and turned to look at the world that had opened up to us…

My feet were a little tender after being burnt by my boots, so they seemed to be a little sensitive to the ground. The change from smoothly-painted green to soft wood was a little odd. It felt rough and a little dry, but thankfully wasn't quite enough to agitate me. Actually, I was kinda glad there didn't appear to be any paint on the floor, this would be a lot easier to run on.

Unlike the section of the world where we were trapped between brick walls, there was no wooden scaffolding to be seen here. There was a new background entirely in its place, something that wouldn't have been out of place in a children's popup book. It looked a bit like how I'd picture the inside of an ancient colosseum to be, only instead of people being here to watch the fight sitting in the stands, the whole space seemed to be taken up by an orchestra, ready to play.

Also, much to my annoyance, much like the place we were just in, this place had a brick wall at the end of it too. I could probably use my last rocket to destroy it, but I didn't want to risk it. If there was another wall behind it, there'd be no way for me to get through. I could try my explosive wires, but I still didn't really know how to activate them.

"Hey, can you bust through this wall?" I asked Puppet, hoping they could come up with a solution. _After all, they seemed to find a weak spot in the other one… _It walked over to the wall, and its head slowly moved, as if it was scanning every inch. Eventually, it turned to me and shook its head. _Damn… _"What about the background?"

Puppet turned to look at the paper orchestra. Its head tilted to the side, and its left wrist seemed to twitch a little, as if it was thinking about it. I frowned as I noticed something else about its arm. "Your hand is redder…" I said. In fact, now I got a better look, the red on all of its limbs seemed to have spread, just a little bit. _That's weird. We haven't come into any contact with red paint, and the colour far too glossy and stained to be brick dust… _Again, I felt a little spark in me, and I looked up at Puppet's face "…do I know you?"

Before I could get any form of answer though, a familiar voice interrupted. "CORNERED AGAIN!" I hunched over, making myself a smaller target, and preparing myself to move out of the way, as Yama appeared, having followed us through the gap his head punched in the wall… Only this time, all we could really see of him _was _the head. The plush brown body was gone, replaced by… Something I wanted to say reminded me of Buu a little. It was basically a colourful-square robot body, but instead of wheels or wires like Buu, there seemed to be all kinds of tools poking out of various holes all along the side. Things like power drills, screwdrivers, hammers, and a couple of poles, sharpened at the ends into makeshift spears. I wondered where the hell he got all of that, before remembering the boxes of junk behind the scaffolding. It would have been kind of terrifying to see, as it was basically a UFO with robot arms full of tools, all of which could pretty easily take either of us out, being unarmed, but the effect was ruined, by the stupid bug-eyed head, sitting precariously on top of it.

"This time, there shall be no escape for either of you!" Drills whirred and all the other tools in its arms were raised into the sky… which seemed to be falling. The spotlight sun was blocked, as something massive fell past it, and the stage was bathed in shadow.

"Get down!" I ordered, putting a hand on Puppet's back and shoving it to the ground.

"Victory for Trouble Yama!" the cat-bear declared, before it was promptly squashed.

_DO-DOOM!_

That was a lot louder than the rockets that were shot at us before… And as I slowly lifted my head, and saw the giant toy dog that had flattened Yama, it wasn't hard to see why. It was nowhere near as big as the Ray, if you had them side-by-side, but it still took up quite a bit of space on this part of the stage. The orchestra in the background, came to life, arms and instruments moving as if a thousand invisible hands were tugging on paper tabs, making them move back and forth. And they were playing… Something I actually knew. I'm not sure where I heard it before, maybe back at Asclepius, I remember the Head Priest sometimes had the radio on while everyone was working, and one piece that kept coming on over and over again was "the nutcracker".

"You blasted mutt!" Yama's muffled voice came from under the dog as it tried to shout over the music "This was meant to be _my _victory!"

"The master's had quite enough of you." The dog growled. "You've been given enough chances, and you keep messing up." The dog sat up, revealing a pill-shaped body, and legs which looked like balls all connected by string that ran inside them. The string was visible for a moment, before the dog stood up, revealing Yama embedded in the wooden floor. "She's sick of it, and sick of _you! _So instead, she's sent someone she can rely on to do the job." The dog turned away from the cat-bear, whose broken robot body made me think of a dead spider, and glared at me and Puppet with wild, rolling eyes. "You've met your end runaways. I, the bounty hunter Mad Boundy, will be the one to hand you over!"

The instant the last word was out of its mouth its ball-limbs completely flattened, only to expand a second later, as Mad Boundy the dog sprang far up into the void of the sky…

I blinked, confused. I doubted the enemy was gone, just like that, but with the sheer force it seemed to shoot itself into the air with, it didn't seem like it was going to come back down any time soon.

"You might want to move…" Yama said. Still bewildered, I looked down at the flattened cat-bear. "Look, I'm giving you advice, just take it, okay? I hate this damn mutt. You take her out, and I'll leave you alone."

Yama's face suddenly seemed to grow dark, and looking up, I saw Mad Boundy falling back to the stage again. I tried to shove Puppet further along the ground, out of range, and crawled after her.

_Her? _I'm… Not sure where that came from, but it made sense to me somehow, to refer to Puppet as female.

_DO-DOOM!_

As Mad Boundy crashed back down to the stage, I felt her pill-shaped body touch my feet lightly. _Cold metal… That's gonna be hard to take out…_ I made a mental note of that though, before pulling my feet under me, ready to move again, at the same time the toy dog stood. Good thing I did, I heard Boundy growling, and looked up to see the dog shaking something in her mouth, which looked suspiciously like a cartoon bomb. I grabbed the wrist of Puppet's mis-coloured arm, and tried to pull her out the way as I tried to get to the other end of the it was my imagination, but it felt a little loose. _I'd better not rip her arm off by mistake…_

Boundy dropped the bomb, just as Puppet and I made it under the dog's pill-shaped body. There was a burst of orange light from behind, highlighting everything around us, and a smell of smoke in the air. _Okay, short-range explosion… That's easy enough to deal with. Good to know. _

"Drat!" Mad Boundy cursed. It hopped along to the other end of the stage, before shooting up into the blackness again. If this was anything like before, there'd be a while before she came crashing back down. I turned to Trouble Yama. "Can you help us?"

"Pfff, no thanks." The cat-bear replied.

"Why not? You said you hated her, right?"

"Yes, but if I'm the one to take her out, the master will have me hunted down like you two, and as you've seen, I'm not exactly the luckiest puppet in the world."

"Tch…" I didn't like the response, but I could understand Trouble Yama's logic. I'd been in a similar position before at Asclepius after all. I turned to Puppet. "Any ideas?"

The puppet stared at me for a lot longer than I would have liked. It took me a while to realise that it couldn't really answer. My question was too vague, and it didn't have a mouth. I mentally facepalmed. _I don't know how this damn world works… Defective puppets are chased by bounty hunters, ordered around by a 'master' behind the scenes, and stuffed animals can set themselves on fire without becoming a pile of ash …_ _But if a plushie can do that…_ I felt a little spark of hope. "Have you got any special powers? Or weapons?"

Puppet's head tilted to the side, and looked down at its left arm. The hand twitched, as its fist clenched, as if it was annoyed. Maybe it was my imagination too, but I thought I saw black smoke leaking from it. It seemed to spread all over Puppet— _Wait that's not smoke. _That was when I noticed the shadow from above, as it fell over Puppet like a curtain, signalling Mad Boundy coming back.

"DOWN!" I shouted, slamming a hand on its back and shoving it to the ground again. There wasn't any time to get to a safer place. _We'll just have to take the hit…_

_DO-DOOM!_

I felt the giant dog's body press against the stiff dragonhide, agitating my ribs, and terrifying me for a second it was going to land full-force. I was waiting for my ribs to crack, and for my body to be nothing more than a messy red stain, as I was crushed under a giant metal dog, only for it to hop back up again.

"OUCH!" Mad Boundy yelped, before jumping back up into the darkness above the stage.

I lifted my head, confused, and saw one of Trouble Yama's weapons sticking up from his embedded form in the stage. Maybe it was chance, or maybe the cat-bear had decided to help us, I had no idea. Either way, I'll take the opportunity he's given us to try and come up with a plan.

I pulled Puppet up from the floor with me, as we ran to the opposite side of the stage, passing over Yama as we did so. _The drill hurt it… _I stopped, and Puppet halted too.

"You mind if we borrow these?" I asked him. I'm not sure why I voiced the question out loud, I didn't bother waiting for Yama to answer, before I reached down for his raised drill arm. _Even if I got my explosive wires to work, there's no guarantee it'll be enough to damage Boundy... _

"How _dare _you?! That's mine!" Trouble Yama said, as I wrenched the drill arm free.

"You want that dog taken out? Me and my friend need this." I growled. _Actually, that's a good point, it's not much good if I'm the only one with a weapon. _"I need this, too", I said as I reached down for another robotic limb to pass over to Puppet, and ended up yanking out one of the makeshift spears.

"You're not exactly smart, are you? How's your friend going to hold that?" Yama said. I couldn't see the cat-bear's face, but I pictured him rolling his eyes.

I opened my mouth to tell him to shut up, only to realise it was a very good question. And not one I had time to answer, going by the shadow that was quickly starting to take up the stage.

"Over here!" I shouted to Puppet, as I lead us to the only side of the stage that was still brightly lit. The paper orchestra's music got a little louder, as we ran over to them. Puppet seemed to slow as we neared them, as if only just noticing they were there, now they were playing the music.

"Are you conspiring with that Troublesome Yama?" Boundy barked, before landing back on the stage _(DO-DOOM!)_ "He's not the only one with friends here!" The dog's eyes rolled in its head, which suddenly darted forward with a loud rattle. Boundy's mouth opened, and out spilled five of those unicycle clowns from that town we landed in when we first came here. They still had menacing grins pasted on their faces, and their arms raised, with splayed fingers, ready to attack as they made a beeline for me and Puppet. Boundy jumped back up into the space above the stage, probably leaving her minions to do the work.

I raised both my weapons, ready to attack, when I noticed the drill arm had a loose wire dangling from it. Thinking fast, I grabbed one of Puppet's arms, and tried to tie the wire around the weapon and the arm. There wasn't much to work with, so I could only do one loop, and knotted it as tightly as I could. Honestly, I doubted it'd hold up, but at least Puppet had a weapon now… and just in time.

Two of the clowns tilted forwards, and slapped the ground with their arms. Wheels revved, as they launched into the air, jumping at me. I thrust the spear-arm forwards, piercing one of them in the face. It caved inward, and the rest of the body ballooned out, just before bursting into a cloud of confetti. My vision was obscured by the rain of glittering colours. _Where the hell is the second one? _I waved my spear arm around, aimlessly, hoping that I'd somehow hit it, if I waved it around enough.

Didn't work. Sharp teeth sank into my shoulder, and I heard a crunch. I tried hard to bite back a curse a lot stronger than I'd normally use, but I'm pretty sure part of it managed to slip out. Thankfully, the clown had latched its jaws onto the shoulder of my arm that wasn't holding a weapon, so I could use my other arm to try and slap it off. Wasn't working. The teeth dug in further, and the pain spread through me, like a crack in shattering glass. A pained noise worked its way up from my throat. I dropped the spear-arm and it clattered to the ground. I knelt down, still trying to rip the clown from my shoulder, but it just wouldn't let go. My vision was starting to go blurry, so scrabbling around with my free hand on the ground to try and reach for the weapon, but I wasn't having any luck.

However, there was still one weapon at my disposal. I doubted my wires would do much, and there was no way in hell I was gonna try for activating the explosive mode when the enemy was right on top of me_. But if I can just get it to loosen its grip, then maybe..._

I tried to shift my arm out the way, and shoot directly upwards with my grappling wires. I hit, and to mine and the clown's surprise, as the tiny grappling hook pierced through its face and out the other end, it ballooned outwards, much like the last one, and exploded into confetti. Although I was glad to have taken out both of the ones attacking me, it didn't really do anything for the condition I was in. A twinge of pain ran through my right side, and now it felt like the clown's teeth had almost snapped my shoulder, and the only noise that I could hear from my left ear was a sharp whistle, that wasn't going away any time soon. _But I can't stop now... I need to keep going..._

I turned to Puppet, to see her just standing there, with the drill-arm still attached to its regular arm. The unicycle clowns were all latched on, biting down hard, two of them on Puppet's legs, and like me earlier, one on the shoulder. I could see red bleeding under the black paint where the shoulder-clown had sunk its teeth in. _Is that blood? I need to help..._

I walked over to Puppet... or I tried to, I'd ended up stumbling and falling flat on the ground, and sent a jolt of pain through my ribs. My feet were still kinda sensitive from the burnt boots earlier, too. In addition to the new bite mark on my shoulder, my world was quickly becoming a huge web of hurt. Somehow, I didn't think getting up and trying to fight again would be too good of an idea. _But Puppet's under attack..._

"Why aren't you fighting them?" I asked Puppet. Other than her looking at me, I got no answer to that. _But you're listening to me... You've listened to me the moment we started working together... _"You don't need to follow orders all the time, you can act on your own, too!"

A part of me regretted saying that, the instant the words left my mouth. Puppet wasn't my only audience member after all. The clowns attacking Puppet all moved at once. As if their chins were connected to strings, they all sharply pulled upwards, and looked at me. They let go of Puppet, abandoning her, and wheeled their way over to attack me instead. _Going to attack the easier target... _It was an effective tactic. One that'd probably take me out of combat soon, too. I still have both my grappling wires, and one rocket left, but the rocket would be pretty difficult to aim from my position on the floor. I wasn't sure I could really get myself to roll over and push myself up with my feet either.

My left arm didn't quite seem to cooperate with what I told it to do any more, as I tried to take aim with my grappling wires. Where my right hand found my weapon at my hips easily, my left hand seemed to shake all around, like a fly trapped under a glass. I managed to shoot one wire at a clown, causing it to pop into a colourful cloud, but by the time my wire came back to me, the other two were pretty much on me. Sharp, needle-like teeth stabbed into my arms, and I yelled with pain.

"Damn it! Get off! Let go of me!" I tried to shake my arms, and rid them of the clowns, but they wouldn't shift. Although their teeth were thin, I could swear they were trying to grind down my bones. _Can't fight them without my arms... _It was pathetic. I'd come this far, gotten to the right world, and now my arms were being eaten by clowns.

Images of Cocona, Papika, Toto and Nyunyu flashed through my mind. _I've failed them... I can't defeat my shadow in this state... I'm sorry, guys... I really tried... _I thought of Yuyu, and felt a wave of guilt. _I said you could come with me, and now you're trapped, all alone in Pure Illusion... The shadow's in this world, and it can find you and kill you, and it's all my fault..._

"I'm sorry, Yuyu... I'm so sorry... I should have sent you home... Aahhh!" I hissed as the clown that was chomping my right arm had given up with that, and started clawing at the dragonhide repairs on my armour, as if it knew that I was even weaker under there. Small teeth claws began to shred my armour. Once again, the pain all over felt like I was a piece of shattering glass. Each tiny impact was another fragment of my life falling away. My vision was blurry and dark, and my brain quickly growing delirious.

Tiny bright specks danced around behind my eyes, as more slashes of pain tore through me, becoming too much... And at the same time, it was fading away... I thought I could vaguely feel things being moved around me. _Had the clowns left me to die? _Something clopped against the stage, like a horse's hooves. Suddenly my view changed. Almost everything as dark, but a light was tilted into view. I think... I think I was being held... _Puppet... _My mind was fading. I couldn't see any more... But I could feel something. Thumping. Rhythmic... Familiar to me... An image of my transformed self, holding a silver-haired girl in a flooding temple... "You have a heart..."

* * *

_Authors note: What's going to happen to Yayaka? And What's the deal with Puppet? Find out next time, in the next exciting episode of Pure Feedback!_

…_But yes, to take things a bit more seriously, some of you may have made a few notes or guesses about Puppet. I'm not sure if I made Certain Plans and Things too obvious, or too vague, but I'll say for certain you'll find out more about them next time. I'm gonna have to end the chapter here, because I'm not sure how long the next part will be word-wise, and I feel the patient people still sticking with this have waited more than long enough for a chapter. I'll warn you now though, progress may slow again quite badly after this next chapter (or maybe even during it). I've had at least 3 different endings in mind for this fic for a while, and I'm still not entirely sure which direction I want to take it. Some of them may need a little building up on, so it might be a while. I was planning to have this whole fic finished by Cocona's birthday, which I saw on Reddit is August 17__th__, but at the rate I'm going, it might be lucky if the chapter AFTER the next one was posted by then…_

_Oh, and the video game that inspired this world: to anyone who guessed Dynamite Headdy, you are correct! I took a few notes from both the Japanese and English releases of the game, like the names of Trouble Yama (A mix of English Trouble Bruin, and Japanese Maruyama). Did you know the bosses in the Japanese version of Dynamite Headdy speak/have text-boxes, whereas in the English version, almost all speech is cut, minus the tutorial guys and the end of the game? Weird, isn't it?_

_But yes, next chapters or so may be a while. If you're still sticking with this fic, I hope you're enjoying it and thanks for your patience with my slow progress at the moment._


	19. Chapter 18

_Yuyu_

Didn't know where I was. Somewhere red. Appeared to be a room. Could hear noise as it was being moved. _Maybe not a room? _Uncertain.

Was… Lost. Others were in the room. Wanted to talk to them, ask questions, gather information. Impossible. Tried to move limbs. Unable to. Couldn't feel body. Numb.

_Red… Reverted back to amorphous at last? _Possible. Was able to think in current state. Sudden fear. _Frozen, but can think? Eternal? _No friends at school bad enough. Even if unintentional hurt, was able to talk. Tried to breathe. Couldn't. _But can think… Alive? _Am conscious at least… somehow. Tried to move eyes. Couldn't. Only red visible. Was sitting… I think. Edges of vision suggested others here. Could see shoes. _Not alone… But might as well be. Can't talk._

Could hear a voice. Muffled. As if hearing someone speak through series of doors next to each other. Speech… but words difficult to understand. Was trying hard to listen. Difficult.

Then a sudden voice.

"Hey, are you okay?"

Not clear, but familiar… Wanted to see. Tried to turn head. Body strained. Tense. Almost as if solid… But wasn't. View changed slightly. Twitched towards voice. _Movement possible. Difficult, but possible. _Tried to move rest of body. Wouldn't obey. Still as statue.

Talking again, but muffled. Different voices. _Conversation? _Not sure.

Noise stopped. Muffled speech suddenly louder, urgent. Saw pair of feet move. Tried to listen… Only heard some words, likely due to volume and close proximity "…Defective! …Destroyed!" _Defective. Of course, destruction's imminent... _Was definitely defective now. Not just bad arm this time, but whole body. _Useless body. … _"…Burn!" Heard that word too. _Fire? _Felt cold when reverting to amorphous. Would fire help? Unknown.

"**Get back!"** Familiar voice again, loud, but clear this time. _Clear because directed to me? _Possible. _Knew that voice… Who…? _Wanted to look again. Tried to turn head. Couldn't. Felt something roughly shove me to back of room.

_BOOM. _Muffled noise. As if hearing through water. New lighting in room. Not red. Not fire. _Then what? _Couldn't see clearly. Occupants of room got up. Feet at edge of vision disappeared from it completely. Attempted to move again. Thought foot twitched. _**((Defective…))**_ No good. _Am stuck here. _

Saw a hand. Was placed on mine. Couldn't feel. **"Let's go!"** voice said again. Closer to me. _Who…_

Rushing, like water in pipes. _Fire? _Saw hand on mine tense. Knuckles turned white. Couldn't feel physical contact… But felt tiny spark in self, amid numbness. Sharp. _Fear. Horrified by fire. Distant memories haunting person… _Recognised voice that spoke at last. _Yayaka! _Underneath numbness, felt… happy.

_Won't let Yayaka burn. _Remembered promise I made to self. Noise of fire grew.

_MOVE!_

And this time… body obeyed. Leapt to feet, and ran for not-red. Couldn't feel Yayaka's grip on hand. Looked tight, but not certain would stay. Tugged her hand, and curled arm around her. Fell through the air. Ground was coming up, fast. Moved legs, adjusting for landing…

…Safe.

Yayaka worked herself away from me. Felt my arms drop. She looked at me for a while. _Do you know who I am? _Couldn't ask. No voice. Yayaka showed no recognition. She turned to look at world around. Was about to do the same, but suddenly unable to move again. _Why?_ Irritating. Floor was green. Sky empty black, blue sheet. Saw… Toys? Uncertain.

Suddenly, noise. Blaring. Had a rhythm. Wasn't stopping. _An alarm?_

"**Come on!"** Yayaka said, taking my hand again. Could feel her panic. Ran towards sky. Saw block of yellow. Yayaka stopped. Heard faint 'thump'. _Wall? _Stopped walking and tilted head to side, trying to request information. No answer. Yayaka ran again, away from yellow and blue. More green and black was visible. Yayaka stopped sharply again. Looked around at world. I was unable to. Could see something new though, toys heading towards us. Looked ready to attack.

No warning, Yayaka moved again. Was dragged with her. Momentum of action turned me around. Facing same way as Yayaka. Both running. Origami cranes flew away, startled. Yayaka nearly missed a step as she saw 'DRY CLEAN ONLY' label on sky. Ran for a long time. Unknown how long.

Heard a faint voice. A large toy rocket crashed into the world, shaking it. Must have startled Yayaka. Heard her voice, faint. She let go of my hand. _Under attack? _Wanted to ask her, but couldn't… Couldn't move at all, not in contact with her. Thought legs wobbled. Balance failed. Fell into sitting position. Yayaka kept running. Felt… hurt. _Don't leave me…_

She turned back and looked at me. Spoke. Voice was muffled, but could understand. Able to lip read. "Come on! You wanna get destroyed?! **Run with me!**"

Last words were clear, able to understand without lipreading. _Want to go with Yayaka! _Found self able to move again. Yayaka started running again. Followed her. _BOOM! _World rumbled at feet. _Another rocket? _Was closer to me judging by impact. _Under attack. Run with Yayaka. _Ended up at her side. Wanted to stay there. More rockets thudded into land. _Coming from above… But didn't see launchers. _Wanted to look up, but couldn't. Through numbness, felt one hit left arm, where dark blue stripe was. _Possible to catch? _Tried to force wrist to react. Stiff, but moved. Dull feeling in hand. Edge of vision showed it being held. Must have made noise, Yayaka turned to look at me. She smirked. Turned to look up at black sky. Couldn't read her lips from the side. Would guess a sneer or insult.

Must have gotten someone's attention. World changed. Brick wall landed in front of us. Felt rumbles from behind. _A trap._

Large stuffed animal thrown into 'room'. Had trouble standing. Big head tilted and wobbled. Lifted an arm as if to balance head. Blatant weak points: places where limbs met body. Damaging one leg could render enemy immobile, arms insufficient strength to allow for crawling. _Aim for legs! _Wanted to charge. Attack immediately. Couldn't. Had energy to move, but was trying to force against solid surface. Tried to force self as hard as possible… Rooted in place.

Sky changed during attempts to move. Got severely annoyed. _Enemy distracted! Perfect time to strike! MOVE! _Whole body was like useless arm. At least old arm could be moved, even if resulted in pain and uncontrollable tremors. This… was _aggravating. __**((I can fix it for you…))**_

_A voice? Where? _Wondered if enemy was talking. Possible. Bowed towards us. May have been silent. Could hear noise, possible vague speech, but no distinctive syllables. No lips to read. Wrong angle to see Yayaka's face.

Enemy spread arms out. _Inviting a challenge? _Anger. Mentally clenched fist and grit teeth. _Could move it not stuck in useless defective form! Could destroy! WHY CAN'T I MOVE?! _Cursed self for existing.

Blue sparks fizzled in air. Gathered around enemy. Unsure if lightning or fire. Could be either. Yayaka backed into me. Could feel fear from her. _Want to save her! _Tried to lift leg. Felt like solid stone. Tried to look down. Couldn't… But could see legs. Feet and up to knee entirely red. Hands and upper arms red. _Not entirely amorphous… But unable to move… _Body appeared to be made of wood. Left arm different colour, and dark blue stripe. _Metal arm in melted sap. Remaining scrap of Yayaka's jacket on upper arm… _Had been transformed by influence of world.

"**Get down!" **Heard Yayaka's voice clearly. Muted feeling of hands on side. Light pressure as was pushed out of the way as enemy with blue fire-aura ran at us. _She saved me… But why? _Am useless. _**((You are a puppet for others to command… All you can do is follow orders.)) **_

_Not true! Can do more than follow orders!_

_**((Then move by yourself.))**_

Concentrated. Tried to focus on just one limb. Couldn't feel it. Tried to mentally push. Shove. _Anything, _willing it to move… All attempts failed. Felt dejected. _…Can't. _Was lying on the floor still. May as well have been stuck to it. Couldn't even let go of rocket. Simple gesture impossible to act upon.

Thought Yayaka was talking. Heard a faint voice, words unclear until, "**Get out of there!" **

'_Made to follow orders'… Can only act if Yayaka tells me to do something. _Tried to move, and could. Head turned. _Should make most of time I have. _Stood up as quickly as possible. Could see enemy covered in blue fire aura from corner of vision. _Joints still weak points, but unable to strike past aura. Need another solution. _Looked at wooden scaffolding of stage, searching for weak points.

"…**Get out of there!" **Felt compelled to obey order. Moved away from scaffolding and went to brick wall far away from enemy, who was targeting me. Upon seeing brick, began to scan quickly. Solid wall… But a weakness: Hairline fracture on one brick, poorly patched into wall. Impact would upset entire structure. But how to destroy? _Using hands more likely to result in damage to themselves rather than wall. Rocket in hands would lack velocity, even if thrown._

"**MOVE YOUR ASS!" **Yayaka screamed. Was a little surprised. _Does she know who I am? _Unlikely. Look different. _But Yayaka is worried about me… _Felt a little warm inside. Also, given me solution to problem: Use enemy's momentum in attacking me to break wall.

Got out of the way. Saw blue light crash into wall instant I had moved. Timing was luck more than anything. Had no real idea where enemy was in relation to me…

But plan worked.

Heard stifled sound, likely complaints, from enemy. Seemed dazed, unable to move. Was fine with that. Turned to look at Yayaka. Her eyebrows were raised as she spoke. Muffled, but could lip read now. "Okay, I gotta admit, that was a smart idea," she grinned at me. Felt embarrassment. Wanted to say it was luck… But was happy despite that. Wanted to grin back at her. Couldn't. Yayaka frowned. _Thinking? _Shook her head to clear it. **"Let's go!" **Voice was clear as order was given.

Followed Yayaka as she stepped through hole in brick. Faint voice came from behind, would guess from enemy. Yayaka turned to respond. Watched as her lips formed "screw you!" directed at enemy. Suddenly remembered rocket in hand. _Enemy tried to burn Yayaka. _While able to move, threw rocket at it. Made Yayaka smirk. Felt good seeing her happy like that. Both entered new space. Wanted to turn head for better look, but got stuck at angle. Was looking at void and Yayaka. Yayaka glanced around, before heading straight to wall on other side of this new room.

"Hey, **can you bust through this wall?" **Yayaka asked. Appeared to have taken in area already. Turned head so able to see wall she was talking about, and approached. Slowly scanned. Each brick identical in creation. No weaknesses available. Was likely reinforced. Double-checked. Turned to Yayaka and shook head. **"What about the background?" **Turned to look, and was surprised. Was expecting to see scaffolding, but none here. Area appeared more open, but place was occupied. Not by wood this time. Had flat musicians there on stands. Looked as if drawn on paper. All wearing suits, and equipped with different instruments. Felt left hand twitch involuntarily. If had old metal arm, could have said 'yes', but then would have to do as Yayaka told me… Would have to destroy… But I didn't want to do that. May only have been paper, may not be real, but music… I didn't want to destroy music.

Heard Yayaka's muffled voice, but unable to pick out words. Wanted to look at her, but had frozen again. Could just about make out her lips from corner of vision "…do I know you?"

Felt… something at those words. Not sure what. Sad she didn't know it was me? Happy she may have been recognising me? Felt something 'hit', but unable to identify emotion.

Loud muted voice from hole in wall. _Enemy returned? _Possible. Heard another noise, possibly machinery, but was too quiet to tell…

Then the stage got dark.

"**Get down!" **Heard Yayaka right next to me. Felt pressure on back, as was shoved forward.

_BH-BHHM!_

Was flat to ground. Looked like hard wood, but wobbled. Powerful shockwave. World was completely dark, until 'shadow' sat up. Appeared to be large robotic dog. Floor not damaged under point of impact. Noticed something else, too. Noise in background. Unable to determine what.

Faint voices. Volume high, but couldn't understand. _Conversation? Argument? _Unknown. Felt vibrations and robot dog rose to ceiling. More muffled conversation. Couldn't see speakers. Head wouldn't move. Wanted to push self up from floor. Unable. Got annoyed with self. Stage appeared to get shadowy again. Felt faint pressure. Was moved slightly. _Pushed again? _Likely conclusion.

_BH-BHHM!_

Dog crashed to stage. Felt something come into contact with feet. Ground underneath rippled violently. Wondered about properties of floor in this world. Hadn't broken from impact. May not be able to break from impact… _But if it could… _

Watched Yayaka's shadow move as she rose. Appeared to flinch, as if realising something. Quickly, she grabbed my left arm, and pulled. No order given, so couldn't move. Tried to will legs to move. No reaction. Solid as lead. Irritation. Was able to stand, but nothing else. _Defective… Unable to move of own free will… but… Yayaka willing to save me. Take me out of danger despite uselessness… _

Heard noise, like dull pop of balloon. World highlighted orange briefly. Looked at Yayaka, framed by black void. She watched dog intently. Purple eyes firey. _May not know true identity, but is trying to keep me out of danger. Doesn't want me damaged or hurt, even if am just a puppet in this world. Kind, caring Yayaka…_

Heard faint thuds. Ground shook again. _Jumping? Multiple impacts? _Couldn't see dog, unable to determine actions. Dog's shadow rose. _Left area. _Muffled conversation followed. Could see side of Yayaka's mouth move. Unable to determine speech from this angle. Heard replies. _Previous enemy survived? Possible. Just a stuffed animal. _Yayaka turned to me. "Any ideas?"

Thought. _If could turn head, could see if ground unstable from multiple heavy impacts. _Edge of vision showed wooden ground still intact. _Other ideas? _Thought about it. _Yayaka has weapons. Rockets and wires. _Wanted to motion to Yayaka's hips to remind her. Unable. Was practically a statue. _Unable to communicate. _Felt anger. Useless, _defective_ body won't respond. Tried desperately to force movement. Yayaka seemed aware of long silence. Changed question. "Have you got any special powers? Or weapons?"

_MOVE! _Kept willing self to react. _MOVE! REACT! DO SOMETHING! _Anger increased. _MOVE! __**((Stuck are you? I can help with that…))**_

Head suddenly tilted to side. Action so unexpected, would have thought neck had snapped with speed it happened. _Am a puppet. No neck. _Faint feeling hand was moving too. Tried to force it to react. To point at Yayaka's weapon belt. No response. Effort appeared to be having effect on body. Saw black smoke from arm. Seemed… familiar. Shadow fell over smoke before could pinpoint where previously seen.

"**DOWN!" **Yayaka ordered, pushing me down again.

The land shook… but not as much. Heard loud noise. One word. Could hear it, "OUCH!" As soon as dog appeared, it jumped back up into the air. _Odd. _Yayaka grabbed my hand again. Pulled me along with her. Stopped when reached previous enemy, who appeared to be embedded in the floor. Observed area around enemy while Yayaka pulled parts off of it. Cracks stretched along ground, like small lightning bolts. _Floor destructible. Would be weakest here._

Large shadow falling from above.

"**Over here!"** Yayaka said. Long robotic limbs in hands. Hearing an order, was able to act on own, and run with Yayaka to brightly lit part of stage. Constant background noise from earlier was louder. Looked up… and slowed down.

_Music! The noise was music!_ Paper orchestra's arms flickered, like 2-frame animation. Rising notes! Fast notes! Differing pitches! Unable to decipher exactly piece, but would guess classical. Energetic at least. Annoyed couldn't hear it properly in current state, but _music! _Wanted to stay and listen. Wanted to take Yayaka's hand and show her.

_Yayaka. _Remembered: under attack. Was lost in music. Turned head… tried to. Motion was very slow… But possible. _Because near music? _Unknown. Saw toys from earlier on stage now, and saw dog jump into air. Yayaka held two robot arms taken from previous enemy, ready to attack… Seemed to un-ready. Suddenly turned to me. Took arm, and held up robotic arm with loose wire and drill head. Tied wire around my arm. _Gave me a weapon._

Toys, looked like clowns on unicycles, wheeled over to us. Two leapt at Yayaka. Wanted to run and help her. Limbs felt like they would respond… But was far too slow to move. Could barely take a step with stiff, heavy leg, when three clowns attacked.

Two latched onto legs. Saw sharp teeth glint in the light. They sank into my legs, on the red parts. Couldn't feel. Was thankful this time I couldn't feel. Third clown slapped hands against ground, and pounced. Needle-thin teeth sank into shoulder. Felt… something. Not pain. Saw patch of red leaking from where it bit me. _Blood? Or… amorphous? _Likely the latter. No longer seem to bleed… as if no longer alive. _**((You are amorphous. A rock. Rocks aren't alive.)) **_

_But I exist. _

_**((You are **_**aware.**_** Not alive. You are a power source. You were made to assist Yayaka. She and Nyunyu have used you to transform. That's the only reason why you're here. They don't like you, only your power, and one day, your power will run out…)) **_

"Why aren't you fighting them?" Yayaka's voice broke into thoughts. Her enemies were defeated. She tried to walk over to me. Ended up tripping and falling. Pained expression on face. Likely made a noise too, but couldn't hear if did. Watched as her lips moved. "**You don't need to follow orders all the time, you can act on your own, too!"**

_Act… on my own? Was that an order?_ Tried to move. Thought I could feel… something. Wasn't sure. Enemies attacking me jumped off at sound of Yayaka's voice and went over to her. Watched as she tried to move and use weapon belt. Right arm functional. Left bleeding at shoulder, shaking violently. Managed to hit one clown with grappling wire. Yayaka unable to attack others in time. They bit her, with sharp teeth. Heard Yayaka curse. Saw her try and shake her arms to remove clowns. Getting weaker. _Need to help her. __**((Why?))**_

Tried to ignore voice. Wanted to get to Yayaka. Tried to lift leg… Surprised it was actually possible. _I can move. _Limbs were stiff, and speed was slow, but was able to walk towards Yayaka. Saw her lips moving.

Was odd. Hard to hear things in world before, but now… "…Yuyu, I'm so sorry… I should have sent you home…" Was easier. Could hear her voice more clearly. Body starting to feel different… softer. Not as solid. Looked down at hand. Saw wood pattern thinning. Almost melting away, as fingers were revealed. Red on one hand, amber-stained white on the other. Although appeared to be returning to original self, movement was still difficult. Likely due to crystalisation. Hands and feet were heavy. Took effort to move. _But can move now. _

Looked up again and saw clown tearing at Yayaka's armour, where previously repaired. Grew angry. _You will _not _hurt Yayaka! _Ran to her. Wooden feet becoming Flip Flap boots. Reached Yayaka. Grabbed each clown in turn and punched them with metal arm on the nose, their weak point. Sufficient damage caused. Clowns ballooned and burst into colour. Destroyed. Anger partially satisfied, but as looked down at Yayaka… grew worried. Hurt to look at her. Can only imagine pain she was in right now.

Carefully, tried to put arm around her. Avoided injured side. Had to bring her head close to my ear. _Have to know she's breathing. _

Got more than expected.

"You have a heart…" Yayaka mumbled, exhausted. Voice was next to my ear. Could hear it clearly. As she said it, became aware of the thumping in my chest. _I have a heart. I can feel it beating. _Wanted to hug Yayaka tightly in that moment… But would hurt her if I did. Didn't want to hurt her.

Never quite saw self as a self… But Yayaka… was starting to change that.

"Yayaka… You softie." Doubted she could hear me, but I said it out loud anyway. Felt warmth near my chest. Necklace taking shape as wooden body faded. _Need to get Yayaka somewhere safe__. _Reached into belt pockets. Clawed out ration bars, and found Hole device. _Have to send her back alone. Will follow later. _Tried to set coordinates. Difficult with drill arm attached to mine. Would remove, but might need it._ Yayaka more important. _

Set coordinates for Asclepius base, and threw to ground. Black circle opened up on stage. Lowered Yayaka into it carefully. _Please land safely… _Tried to keep metal arm connected to her, to try and aid return to Earth.

Suddenly, stage grew dark. Not just because of Hole. Turned around, looking up. Saw shadow falling again. _'Why aren't you fighting them?' 'You don't need to follow orders all the time, you can act on your own too!' 'You have a heart'. _

_Yayaka would want me to save myself. _Heard noise as Hole whooshed shut. _Yayaka safe. _Immediately made a move for light part of stage, out of range of enemy. _Floor is damaged. _Remembered previous observation. Looked at drill arm Yayaka equipped me with. Small smirk. _Perfect weapon to further damage floor. _

_DO-DOOM!_

Ground shook as dog landed. Able to keep balance. Went to remove drill arm from being tied around real arm… felt shoulder move, but couldn't see metal arm. _Should have been moved into line of sight. _Looked at shoulder.

_Metal arm gone. _Must have been severed when Hole closed when sending Yayaka back home. Couldn't feel loss at all. _Need another way to remove drill. _

Dog had turned to face me as I crouched and lowered real arm, attempting to use feet to remove wire.

"You two have—" Looked up. _Dog spoke. _Was correct about possible conversations after all. Could hear dog clearly. Appeared to be holding ball attached to string in its mouth. Looked around, confused. Then glared. "Where did your friend go? And… What happened to you? You were a puppet before."

Head tilted to side, response to confusion. _Dog recognises me despite new appearance… __**((Yayaka didn't… She doesn't care about you as much as you think…)) **_

Clenched fist in anger. Couldn't feel fingers against hand. "Friend is safe." Answered that question with normal voice. _May be true… But that doesn't stop me caring about her. She was kind. She let me listen to music… _Realised as I was able to hear, the music was clear now, and not just noise. Violins. Trumpets… and piano, all playing 'the nutcracker'. _Yayaka is like music. Makes me feel alive… Like I am human. _Put clenched fist over my heart. Amorphous necklace rested over the top of it. Warmth grew into intense heat. Although hand was amorphous, could feel it in my mostly-amorphous arm and legs. I could feel it, all the way down to my fingers and toes.

"I am not a puppet anymore."

_Yayaka saved me from drowning. She's saved my life. _

The amorphous around my neck began to glow.

"I am human."

_She took us to the arcade for a day of fun._

My numb limbs began to glow, casting an aura of red light.

"I have a heart…"

_And she was one of few people who treated me that way…_

As if there was wind, strands of silver hair blew in my face, growing into longer strands of copper.

"My friend's name is Yayaka…"

_She may not have known mine in this world, but that doesn't matter…_

Where my metal arm should have been, there was… a sensation. I found myself able to move a newly formed crystal arm. I caught a reflection of my eyes, and saw they were a gentle lavender. _Just like hers'…_

"…and I treasure her more than anything."

_Power of amorphous and thinking of someone important… _The two things Toto said you needed to transform…

Along with the magic words:

"Flip… FLAPPING!"

* * *

_Authors note:__I sorta ended up turning Yuyu deaf this chapter… Well, in a puppet form, she wouldn't have ears, but I hadn't quite planned for that to happen, it just sorta happened while writing. It's been a bit odd to write this one, when it came to writing the speech,. My mum's deaf, so I tried to imagine how she would hear things (or not hear them) when writing Yuyu's parts this chapter. Yayaka's orders, which are heard clearly regardless of direction she's facing and not lipread are in __**bold**__ to try and show what Yuyu has been able to hear without trouble before she reverted back to normal._

_Also, I apologise if this chapter seems kinda messy or unclear. I didn't quite want to re-write the ENTIRE thing from Yuyu's POV, but I wanted to make it a bit clearer/point out a few things people may have missed in Yayaka's version of the chapter that were hints of Puppet's identity (although some of you had probably guessed the truth)._

_Also, I realise, this is probably the only time in the whole of my two big Flip Flappers fics where I've had a world ending up having a character influenced by the world in the form of a physical transformation… And as you can see, not _just _a physical transformation like that!_

_I debated adding more to the chapter, but I felt that was a good place to leave it, even though it means it'll be kinda short compared to other ones. From now on, chapters may be a little slow to upload as I'm still trying to work out where things are going exactly, just to let you know._


	20. Chapter 19

_Yayaka _

Like a few times in my life before, I was pretty surprised at the fact I could wake up at all after… _what had happened again? _It took a second for it to come back to me. _The world of puppets, being on a stage, fighting stuffed animals and giant toy dogs…_

I blinked, trying to make sense of my surroundings. _Shouldn't the ceiling be a black void? Why is it grey? _I tried to raise my left arm up to rub my eyes, only to scream as a sharp pain ripped through it.

"Yayaka!" Someone nearby cried my name. _Yuyu? …No, that's not Yuyu's voice. _A blurry figure with silver hair ran into my line of sight. "Shouldn't move!" They said, their voice sounding almost as heavy as Salt's, but not weighed down. It sounded more like this person had trouble breathing.

"Toto?" My voice came out, quiet and cracked. Although I was kinda groggy, my brain was working enough to realise, "You shouldn't be here… Go back to Flip Flap…" I raised my right arm, which felt a little weak, and tried to bat him away.

"Am at… Flip Flap."

"…What?" _But how…? _It was then that I realised that my back wasn't against a wooden stage floor, and was instead resting on a soft mattress. _And that explains why the sky isn't black… So I'm at Flip Flap… _"How did I get here?" I asked.

My question seemed to puzzle Toto, but only for a moment. He looked down at an object he was holding in his hand. I had to blink a few times to try and clear my vision. What my brain could only make out as a long cylinder of syrup slowly became clearer, until I realised what it was. "Yuyu's arm?" _How the heck did that get here?_

"Tell me… what happened… in Pure Illusion…"

I found it a bit strange to have him demanding information from me, but I couldn't exactly blame him for it. _To him, I must have appeared from nowhere at all, and I have his sister's arm even though I swear I haven't encountered her… It must look pretty suspicious. Maybe if I go over things, I'll get some answers too._

So, that's exactly what I did, staring from when I woke up after fighting the Ray. I told him how I fell into a tree in the land of metal leaves, which took me somewhere else entirely. How I ended up living through some of Papika's memories, encountered Mimi, and explained how she'd tried to speed up time on me to help heal my ribs, before sending me to another part of the world where apparently my shadow was.

"It ended up being some weird puppet world. One of them tagged along with me the whole time, and then there was a fight with a stuffed cat, followed by a giant dog which dropped unicycle clowns on me…" Even if Toto was more expressive, it didn't surprise me that he didn't think anything that'd happened to me was strange at all. If I'd said it to anyone else outside of Flip Flap, they'd probably be sending me to an insane asylum after the 'falling into a tree and teleporting' thing.

"After that…?" He asked.

"Not a clue, I blacked out from pain, and woke up here," I said, about to shrug, sending a shock of pain through my left shoulder all over again. Toto continued to stare at me as I'd finished speaking, which I found a little odd. _Going over the events in his head?_ That's what I would have guessed, but Toto should have registered every single detail the instant I said it. _…Unless staying in Pure Illusion so long has affected him more than I thought… _

"Describe… the puppet."

His request was a little odd, but I did as he asked and went into detail. "Well, there were other puppets in that world too, but the one that followed me was nowhere near as well made as them. Its hands and feet were red, its body with a few careless splashes of black paint, and its left arm was a different colour to the rest of it—" I stopped, as my eyes fell on Yuyu's metal arm again, realisation slowly dawning on me. "It looked an awful lot like that…"

_I'm an idiot._

_The puppet was Yuyu._

_And she's all alone in Pure Illusion now._

All of my grogginess was gone in an instant. "How long have I been out cold here?"

Toto's eyes looked down at the floor, away from me, knowing I wouldn't like the answer. He almost seemed guilty as he said "…Two days…"

"_Two days__?!" _It was hard not to scream after hearing that. My heart was pounding quickly with panic. _I've been gone far too long! I need to get back to her! _I tried not to let the worry on my face show. _If Toto works out what I'm doing, he might not let me go. I can't stay here; I need to help her! _"Is Nyunyu around?" I asked, trying to sound as neutral as possible.

Toto nodded. I got up from the bed at that point, and began to make my way to the door. I'd almost gotten there, when Toto suddenly seemed to work out what I was trying to do, and I felt a cold hand close over my wrist.

"Let me go, Toto!" I said, forcefully.

"You need… to rest…" He countered. I could barely hear him. My brain was going into overdrive with anxiety.

"Yuyu could be in danger right now, fighting for her life!" I said, "Last time I saw her, she was a puppet that could only move when obeying an order. She can't defend herself like that! What if my shadow finds her and attacks her?" I tried to pull my arm away from his hand, but his grip was tight. _Okay, now I'm mad_. "Let go of me!"

"Yayaka…"

_For frag's sake… _"Toto, I need to go save her. This whole mess is _my_ fault. I said she could come along, and now she's alone—"

"Sent Cocona… and Papika… To assist… as soon… as you arrived…"

"_And have you heard from _either_ of them, since they left two days ago?!"_ I roared, turning to look at him. Toto recoiled, as if I'd physically struck him after that sentence, and I felt guilty for being so harsh. I opened my mouth about to apologise, but he beat me to speaking:

"Not heard… From them…"

His mood seemed to fall at that moment, just as much as mine had, and he let go of my wrist. While he was quiet, I took the chance to say, "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to get mad—"

"You're worried… I'm worried too... I understand…" Toto interrupted. His eyes looked sad, but there was a small smile on his face. "I forgive you…" I thought that line was going to be the end of it, but he said something that really caught me off guard, "Try and learn… to forgive… yourself, too."

My eyes went wide. _Learn to forgive myself? What a weird thing for him to say... _But… to be honest, the words sorta 'hit' me, more than I felt they should. I sorta realised then, just how much it meant for me to hear that from someone, and in that same moment, just how much Toto meant to me. _It's like having a little brother…_

In an attempt to look like what he said hadn't had any impact on me at all, and that I was a tough badass commander, I looked away from him, hoping he couldn't spot the light blush that'd probably coloured my cheeks. "Shut up, you softie," I said, before I turned to leave the room. "Come on," I said more forcefully, as I gave the order, "Help me find Nyunyu."

* * *

Although Toto kept insisting, I should stay behind and rest, he couldn't really deny that someone should go to Pure Illusion and see where Yuyu, Cocona and Papika had gotten to. He said he would have tried to go with Nyunyu himself, using Buu again, but apparently Hidaka was busy looking over the robot, (apparently when Toto used Buu to catch me when I fell during my fight with the Ray, he's managed to damage the robot's wiry arms somehow. Hidaka was working on repairs.) It took a while to find Nyunyu, not just because Flip Flap is a maze, but because Toto could only walk so fast. I kinda wish I didn't need him with me to guide me around the base, so I could get all of this done a lot quicker, but I didn't really have a choice. If I wasn't with him I probably would have found everything except Nyunyu and the kitchen sink* (and even then, the only reason I doubted I'd find a sink in here was because Hidaka would have scrapped it for parts long ago, if there ever was one in here in the first place.)

It didn't take too long to find Nyunyu, in fact, she was watching Hidaka work on Buu, fixing him up, both of them wearing welding masks. Neither of them really acknowledged us being here. The most we got was a glance from Nyunyu, her oddly-cut hair bobbing as she did so, before she returned her attention to the blue sparks flying as Hidaka held a blowtorch over the little yellow robot.

"Hey, Nyunyu, we need you in Pure Illusion," I said, turning my back on the room, waiting for her to follow.

"Not coming!" She replied.

"What?!" I spun around, right away. _I would have thought she'd leap at the chance to go to Pure Illusion again!_

"I'm helping Hidaka!" She said in response.

I growled, annoyed. "Nyunyu, you're not even doing anything, you're just watching!"

"Can't go!"

"Why not?!" She might have been about to speak and give me a reason, but I didn't have time to listen to that right now. "Nyunyu, it's urgent. I'd ask Toto if he wasn't gonna be on the verge of death the moment we get there, but I can't do that. Come with me!"

"Nope!"

_Oh for… _"Nyunyu, Cocona's in there! Flip Flap hasn't heard from her since she went into Pure Illusion _two days _ago. She's your sister, isn't she? Don't you wanna make sure she's okay?"

At that point Hidaka turned to me. I tried not to get even madder, upon seeing his white lab coat and magenta hair poking out from behind his welding mask, which was hard, because it was basically instinct for me to hate everyone who worked in a lab.

"I need Nyunyu with me because we're close to getting results for an experiment, and she plays a vital part in it. If it works, it'll be a great help to the amorphous children." Hidaka said. Hearing the word 'experiments' I felt my hands heat up and they curled into fists. _I don't care if you're working on some stupid magical cure for Toto's sickness right now, Yuyu, Cocona and Papika have been stuck in Pure Illusion for _two friggin' days, _and none of them have contacted Flip Flap! Why does no one seem to get that?! _

Hidaka continued, "We might not have heard from them directly, Yayaka, but I've been monitoring them since they've left." He turned the blowtorch off and picked up a tablet from the desk nearby. The screen of it showed… an incredibly patchy map. Or at least that's what I think it was. The background was black, and there were white lines, as if representing landmasses in all sorts of shapes and sizes. Some cut off suddenly, and some looked like complete outlines. Each of them seemed to labelled with a string of letters and numbers… _Coordinates? _It was then that I realised exactly what I was looking at. _This is a map of Pure Illusion… _In one section, near a very long white rectangle (The puppet's stage world?), was a trio of coloured dots in a line, pink, red, and blue, in that order. It took me a while to work out what they were exactly. _Papika's pink hair, Cocona's blue hair, and the red is the colour of the stripes on Yuyu's armour… _I wanted to relax, as it appeared the three of them were together again, but it didn't quell the anxiety over the situation I still felt. If anything, looking at the screen made me feel worse. _Cocona, Papika haven't been heard from in two days, and there's a red dot there… Just like the one me and Yuyu have been chasing all through Pure Illusion…_

I shook my head, getting mad at myself. _I'm wasting time! _I ran from the room before I really knew what I was doing. "Yayaka!" Toto called after me. I heard his footsteps as he tried to catch me. I wanted nothing more than to get away from there as fast as possible, but I could hear Toto's already heavy breathing get even worse as he tried to catch up with me, so I stopped right in my tracks, to allow him to catch up.

I hated that he was so sick because of his recent journeys to Pure Illusion. I hated Hidaka for not seeming to show a shred of care about the fact Cocona and Papika and Yuyu have been gone for days, which yeah, might only have been a few minutes in Pure Illusion, but it could also easily equate to ten years in there… And I hated myself for spending so long talking to Hidaka, when the situation could be getting worse in there as we spoke.

I slammed a kick into the wall of the corridor in frustration, denting my boot, and agitating my damaged body. _For frags sake, what the hell am I doing?! What is _anyone _doing?! _I kicked the wall a few more times, and threw in a few punches with my better arm for good measure, trying to work this emotion out of me.

"DAMN IT!" I yelled, with one final punch. I would have kept going, but I was tiring myself out, bad. I then felt guilty for breaking my promise to Toto, saying I wouldn't push myself._ Here I am punching a wall, probably making myself worse…_ _I'm such a stupid mess…_

"Yaya… ka…" Toto was panting so hard he could barely say my name. Whatever he was going to say, I had no idea. My brain kinda shut off from words, as I got a little lost in my own thoughts. I cursed myself for staying there for so long, but I couldn't muster the energy to move, or the will to really do anything. _Even if I did, I can't go to Pure Illusion without Nyunyu… Not safely at least. I could drag Toto with me, but I'd practically be killing him, just to try and save his sister, and find the others…_

Suddenly, I felt an arm slip around my shoulders, pulling me away from the wall. A cold, but not clammy, hand touched the side of my face, and soon I was looking into his blank face. _Toto… _He has to feel just as bad or me, or maybe even worse. _His sister's trapped in Pure Illusion, and he can't do a single thing to help… _His red eyes were oddly calm though, as he looked at me, despite all the worry he must be feeling. _His eyes are red, just like his sister's but the stripes on his armour are green instead…_

_Green? _That word stuck out to me. _Green… Nyunyu's oddly-cut hair… _The image of a fat green rabbit, sitting on Nyunyu's head, chewing her hair, entered my mind. _Euxkull… Euxkull made it to Pure Illusion somehow, and he survived the trip there and back… _

_There's another way I can get there!_

It must have confused the heck out of Toto when I suddenly jolted to alertness, demanding to know if Cocona had a room in Flip Flap's base, and if so where it was. He tilted his head to the side in confusion, but then righted himself, and nodded, before guiding me to a place that was only, thankfully, a few rooms away. I was a little torn as my hand was on the door handle. Part of me wanted to leave it alone and back away. _It's Cocona's room. She might not be in there, but I shouldn't exactly go wandering in without her permission… _But the other part of me was still alive with thoughts. _I need to go in there. I need Euxkull to come with me! He's our only hope!_

I pushed the door open and didn't really pay too much attention to Cocona's room. There were a few photos on tables and things, (almost all of them containing photos of Cocona and Papika together in various poses. I noted a couple of pictures: one of a grumpy Doctor Salt, standing next to his daughter, and a photo of Mimi looking exactly how she does now. The only thing that betrayed its age, was the fact it was poorer quality than the others.) but I found what I was looking for: Euxkull's cage. I was a little surprised Salt let her keep him in the base, where he could chew on any wires he could find if he escaped, but right now, I wasn't complaining. I rushed over to the cage (and tried to ignore a red-eyed reflection of myself I caught sight of in one of the photos. Cocona wouldn't be happy if I broke one of them), opened the door, and grabbed the green blob of a rabbit. His fur was a little ruffled, but he didn't seem too bothered by me picking him up and taking him with me. He sniffed my hands, and blinked curiously, before licking my fingers. _At least he seems to like me. I hope that's enough of a bond for both of us to get to Pure Illusion… _"We have to get to the Thomasson," I said out loud to Toto.

* * *

It was odd being in that cramped space again again. I was squished up at the bottom of it, and no one was in the upper section this time. I was holding Euxkull close, even though he made no attempts to escape. I felt a little silly in there to start with, and that feeling only grew as I sat there. _I'm sitting in a cupboard, waiting to go to another dimension with a pet rabbit. How the hell am I going to connect with this thing to even get there?_

"Yaya… ka?" I heard Toto's voice from outside the Thomasson.

"I'm still here," I said.

I was expecting him to speak again, but instead, he opened the door to the Thomasson, and placed an object in there. The door shut again, leaving me in darkness, so I couldn't really see what it was, but feeling at it, and feeling five metal 'fingers' I realised it was, "Yuyu's arm?"

"Interdimensional… communications…" Toto said. "Want to know… you'll be… okay… May also aid… getting to Yuyu…"

I… hadn't thought of any of those things. Hell, if it wasn't for the fact my only thought was to helping the three trapped in Pure Illusion, I didn't even _think _about what'd happen if that didn't get me there and ended up in another world. _At least that way, if that _does _happen, Toto can help me out with that._ "Thanks, Toto."

"Be careful… Out there…"

"I will," I called back, my voice a little wobblier than I expected it to be. _All the emotion I didn't work out of me must be catching up… _I waited for a little while, hoping I'd feel a shift in the atmosphere here, the tell-tale sign we were about to head off, but all felt was my impatience growing, and with it, annoyance. _Try and calm down. Toto's here. Talk to him for a bit. _"How are you?" I ended up saying.

"Worried…" he replied. "Want to help… But can't…"

"Hey, that's not your fault. You're sick after all," I said. _Actually, while he's here… _"Do you know what's up with you exactly? I mean, when you go to Pure Illusion, you're effected in some way. What happens?"

There was silence on the other side. I wondered if I'd asked something wrong when Toto spoke up. "Reverting to… original form…"

It took me a second to work out what he was saying exactly. "Wait… You mean you're turning back into amorphous?"

Toto nodded. "For me… Internal… For Yuyu… Unknown… But assume… the same…"

_Turning back into amorphous? _That… was a terrifying thought. I remembered once when I was talking to Cocona and she told me about how a monster from Greek mythology could turn people to stone instantly, just by looking at them. I found it hard to imagine being alive one moment, then, BOOM! Being a statue the next. It just seemed impossible to me… Well, okay, it _was _a story, but still. I started talking out loud, wondering how that would feel if the process was slower, and you could feel it as it happened. Your limbs solidifying as they turned to cold, hard rock... Cocona said a string of words I didn't understand at all.

"_What?" I asked._

"_What you're describing. It sounds like a very rare disease. '_Fibrodysplasia ossificans progressiva'"

"_Wait, it's a real thing?"_

"_Uh-huh. Only, instead of a body turning to stone, instead, the person's muscle gets replaced with bone. It's very painful, and eventually you lose the ability to move. People with the disease at one stage have to choose if they want to spend the rest of their life sitting or standing."_

"_That… Sounds like hell." _

I felt a stab of… I don't even _know _what, but all I could think was that something similar has to be happening to Toto, or have _been _happening, the more time he spent in Pure Illusion. _And even though he could have been feeling like that the whole time in Pure Illusion, he stayed with me all that time and didn't leave during the fight with the dragon, until the very last moment… Even through all that pain…_ "Hey, Toto?"

"Yes…?"

"You be careful too, okay? You might not be in Pure Illusion anymore, but don't push yourself if things become too much."

At that point, the weak bond between me and Toto flared up a little. It was still small, and honestly, I'd forgotten the damn thing was there, but feeling it now was… kinda nice. It also told me that he was smiling on the other side of the door, even though I couldn't see his face.

It occurred to me then, that I should have asked him about the red dot data I sent him to examine all that time ago, but the atmosphere in the Thomasson began to change, and the thought went out of my mind. I grabbed hold of Yuyu's metal arm tightly, and thought of her, Cocona and Papika, as I held Euxkull to me. It wasn't long before there was a _VWHOOB! _And a Hole opened up to take us away to Pure Illusion…

* * *

_Authors note: *'everything but the kitchen sink' may just be an English phrase/idiom. To explain it, imagine someone moving house. They want to take all their furniture and items with them. All their collectible figures, all their books, all their movies, all the food in the cupboards… pretty much anything and everything. You'd say "they're taking everything but the kitchen sink" to mean everything imaginable". It's meant to be a humorous phrase, which I've sorta tried to adapt to another situation. I have no idea if it works or not, hopefully it does._

_Also, __sorry about the long wait for posting a chapter. I hadn't written for around 17-18 days at least, because I was reading through both my fics and checking for... certain things. I was hoping looking back through might give me some direction of where to go next, and I have ideas for things later in the fic, but it's a question of getting to them. This chapter was…. Difficult to say the least. Every time I thought I had something, my brain derped and I couldn't focus on that idea anymore. It's annoying when that happens. I don't THINK there's too many mistakes or anything in here... I'm hoping now I've gotten this out of the way that working out the next parts of the story will be easier._


	21. Chapter 20

_Yayaka_

_Trapped in a burning world… Red and grey filled my vision. My eyes were burning. There were a couple of shining red rocks at my feet… _

_I held onto them, and then, somehow, I was taken back to Earth…_

* * *

Going to Pure Illusion with Uexkull was… weird. I wanted to keep a tight hold of him, to make sure he wasn't going to drift off and get lost in the void between dimensions, but that was kinda hard for me to do. He started growing in size at an alarming rate, and it wasn't long until my arm that held him in place when he was a small green blob, ended up wrapped around his neck, nearly choking him. I loosened my grip, just as we were dumped in a new world.

I know it was two Flip Flap days since I'd last seen Yuyu, but it was a bit disheartening to me that we didn't land in the puppet world, and I couldn't help getting worried. _How do we know she's not still in there, and we've landed in the wrong world entirely?_ _Just because I was able to influence that when I went with Papika doesn't mean the same thing's happened here. I probably don't have a bond with Uexkull at all, or at least, not one strong enough to determine where we landed… _

Although that chain of thought was one I'd rather not be having, it _did _give me an idea to try and work out if we had, indeed, landed in the same world as the others. I closed my eyes, focusing on the bonds I had with the three missing girls, trying to reach out for them. I knew my bond with Yuyu was pretty weak, so I didn't really expect that to go anywhere, and I wasn't surprised when I got no response. Cocona and Papika however… There was something faint as I tried to make some sorta connection with those two. It felt like they were in the same world as we were, which was a good sign, but I was getting worried again. _Even though they're probably far away, I don't think it should be _that _weak… _I wasn't picking up any hints of a direction they were in, only that they were somewhere in this world.

Speaking of which, this place was… a little oddly shaped. I wanted to say that if you were looking down on it from above, it'd look like a fish, with a large oval body, which shrunk towards its 'tail', which looked like it opened up into a bigger room again… The floor of this place was almost like an optical illusion. Shimmering, rippling tiles, like a constantly moving mosaic, swirling out from the middle gave the impression of the room getting bigger. Looking at the floor made me feel a little dizzy, so I focused on the walls instead, and saw bookshelves that ran all along, in a great unbroken line. It looked pretty normal, but something about it was bugging me.

Curious, I stepped up to it to get a better look at the books. Uexkull, the now humanoid rabbit, didn't follow me, instead staying in the same spot, and looking around the room, his ears twitching. I had a look at the titles of the books, but most of them were in other languages I couldn't even dream to read… and they seemed to be shifting a little. I'd look at the ones on the right, go and look at the ones on the left, turn back to the ones on the right, only to see the ones I'd been looking at had shifted along a few places. Frowning, I tried walking along to get to one of the ends of the bookshelves, only to find the walk taking a lot longer than I thought it would have. _Is the room actually growing? _

I looked back to Uexkull who was standing in the middle of the room. He seemed a _lot _further away than he was a little while ago. _I should get back to him. If this room grows too much, we might not be able to reach each other again._

_In fact, we should probably leave this place as soon as we can. _I made my way back towards him, and lifted Yuyu's arm up in front of me, so I could get a better look at it. _Can this thing track Cocona somehow? _I was pretty sure when Asclepius put a tracker in Cocona they did the same thing for her, as they did for me: fused the thing to the bone, so you can't get rid of it. Since my bond wasn't really telling me where to go, I figured this was probably my next best bet at finding everyone.

I lifted Yuyu's arm to my head, like I was using an over-sized cellphone and said, "Hey, Toto, are you there? Can you hear me?" into it, hoping it'd just activate from a voice talking into it. _He gave me this thing for interdimensional communications after all, I should be able to contact him easily… _

"Yaya… ka?" I heard Toto's voice on the other end. It was crackly, but we could talk. I let out a sigh of relief.

"Hey, Yuyu's arm can track stuff, right?" I asked, thinking about how she and Cocona managed to find me in the blue-scale world. _Or I'd guess that's how they found where I was at least, unless that was just a really small place…_

"Yes…"

"Cool. Can you activate the tracking stuff from over there, so we can find her?" I felt a little dumb asking him to do that, but I didn't really have a choice. I couldn't see any buttons on Yuyu's arm, and even if I could, Asclepius made sure I didn't have much experience with technology, so I doubted I could figure out what to do, or not without wasting more time than we already had.

I waited for a reply. I thought I heard Toto take a breath and begin to say a word, only to be cut out by static. I frowned. "Hey, Toto? Are you there? Can you hear me?" No response. I held the arm away from me, and looked carefully at it. Nothing was wrong, or not that I could see at least. All I could guess was either the sap had worked its way into the limb and crapped up some of the inner workings, or that it didn't have much power, not being connected to Yuyu any more. Either way: something had happened, barely five seconds after trying to talk, and there didn't seem to be any way to fix it. "Damn it…" I cursed out loud. I'd almost made it to Uexkull, who was watching me intently… Or rather, he was watching Yuyu's arm intently. His mouth twitched, and I thought I saw a line of drool at the corner of it.

"No, you're not allowed the chew the arm," I said. His ear flicked towards me as I spoke, but that's the only real reaction I got out of him. Getting a little paranoid, I held the arm close to me, and looked around the fish-shaped room again. It looked twice as big as it did the last time I was standing in this spot. I spun around, to look towards the little room at the 'tail'. _If we want to see what's over there, we'd better do it now, before we have to run a marathon, just to get there. _"Come with me," I ordered.

I didn't have a clue if the rabbit could really understand me, but as I ran for the fish's tail, I heard a steady thumping, and saw a flash of green, as he overtook me. "H-hey! Wait up!" I yelled, "You're meant to be following me!" _Stupid rabbit… He probably thought I wanted to race him… _

I wouldn't be able to tell you how long it took us to reach the fish-tail room. It felt like it should have taken ten minutes, but with the rippling floor, which seemed to be pushing outwards against the walls and forcing them to grow, it probably took twenty. Regardless, we made it (eventually), and seemed to be in another room of lined with bookshelves—

"WHO'S THERE?!" A voice roared, making me and Uexkull jump. The rabbit hopped backwards, away from the direction the sound came from, and crouched down low, looking like he was ready to pounce if the voice came any closer. In the meantime, I'd turned to look that way myself and noticed a thin doorway between some of the bookcases, that I hadn't realised was there before. "I CAN HEAR YOU!" The voice yelled again. I ran over there, quickly, not wanting to risk the room growing too fast for me to get back to Uexkull, and kept hidden just around the corner of one of the shelves, curious to see what was going on.

"Just my imagination…" the voice mumbled to itself. I waited a while before risking poking my head around and peering inside.

There appeared to be another, smaller, room tucked away in there, but this one was very dark. There was a dirty yellow bulb hanging from the ceiling, casting a murky light over what looked like a guy hunched over a desk. Suddenly, the guy got up, and walked quickly towards where I was. I ducked low, hoping I hadn't been spotted, but it seemed like I wasn't even noticed. As the person got closer, I saw it was a man, with long black hair, a tattered black coat, and wearing sunglasses. _Is that Salt? _It looked a lot like him, but his face quite didn't look right, and I couldn't work out why.

I watched as the man reached up for a book above him. Literally above. There were bookshelves all around the top side of the tunnel that lead to his small room. He took one, and a new book which hadn't been there before, seemed to slide into place, filling the gap as if it never existed. The man either didn't notice, or didn't care, and returned to his desk, mumbling away in a gruff voice, "I need to find the answer… I must be close by now…" He walked as if they were trying to carry the weight of the world on their shoulders, each step an urgent, but heavy, plod. _Yeah, that's definitely Salt, even if it doesn't quite look like him… But he doesn't sound right… Is he sick?_

"Doctor Salt?" Another voice came from the small room inside the bookshelves. One that filled me with anger, just from hearing it. _Hidaka? _I frowned. _Wait a second, what the crapping hell are those two doing in Pure Illusion in the first place? Why aren't they helping me look for Cocona?! _I was about to wander in there and yell at them both, when I stopped in my tracks.

I hadn't been seen, (neither of them was facing me) but that wasn't why I ended up standing and watching. I was shocked because Hidaka looked concerned. _Genuinely _concerned. It… confused me. _A scientist that… cares? _I'd seen a moment of Hidaka being kind before, in a memory of a younger Papika, but this… This was starting to make my head hurt.

"Doctor Salt, it's just me. You should rest—"

"I CAN'T REST, HIDAKA!" Salt screamed at the magenta-haired scientist. It was odd, seeing his face from the side, and it was then that I realised why he looked odd to me: because he was younger here. _Is this another memory of someone's?_

Salt continued talking, "Mimi's trapped in Pure Illusion," he said, turning back to the book he'd taken from the shelves. "My father has to have left something here, _some _evidence that can help me bring her back… Her and my daughter, and Papikana…" Suddenly, Salt broke out into a coughing fit.

"Doctor Salt!" Hidaka cried his name, worried, and placed a hand on the other man's back. _A… comforting touch? _The pain in my head got a little worse, having trouble accepting the images of a scientist trying to be _nice_ to someone. "Doctor Salt, please!" Hidaka said, "You need to take a break! You're working yourself to death!"

"Just a little longer, Hidaka…"

"No, Salt!" Hidaka grabbed Salt's face, roughly, and turned him, so they were looking at each other. "I know you blame yourself, for not leaving with Mimi and Papikana in the first place, but this isn't the right way to fix things! What's happened in the past has happened, and you can't change that." I was surprised to hear Hidaka sounding so… forceful, but so concerned. Salt seemed to be reacting to the Magenta-haired man's words similarly, his face seeming shocked. "You need to stop blaming yourself. I can understand that you want to save them, but you can't save them if you end up so sick, you can't carry on your work. Don't forget," Hidaka gave him a small smile, "we're all here to help you, Salt. You're not alone in this. It might take a long time, but we'll save them one day. Mimi has powers in Pure Illusion, doesn't she? And you know she'll protect Papikana and Cocona, and keep them safe."

Salt's face changed again, looking tired and defeated, but he seemed to accept Hidaka's words, nodding reluctantly. The scientist gently coaxed him up and away from the desk. Oddly, although they were both walking, the room itself seemed to be the thing that moved, as if they were scrolling the world along, rather than they themselves, being the ones moving. Hidaka led Salt over to a couch, and Salt flopped down on it. Soft snores could be heard from him barely seconds later. A third person entered the scene (Sayuri), looking down at the black-haired man on the sofa. "Is Doctor Salt okay?" she asked.

"He'll be fine," Hidaka said, "Just needs a rest for now." He sighed. "Well, honestly I think he needs to let go of Mimi and move on. I admire his determination with his work, but this isn't healthy. I know he still feels guilty, but I don't think there's anything we can do."

"Hidaka, his child, his best friend, and the person he loves are in there," Sayuri said, blushing and stumbling a little over that last point. "How can you say he should just move on, after losing everything like that?"

Hidaka didn't speak for a while, as if he was thinking carefully about Sayuri's question. "Maybe it was a harsh thing to say… I can't imagine what it's like to go through something like that..." he sighed, "I don't know what to do. I just wish there was some way I could help him…" The scientist remained in the room a little longer before walking away, although this time he _did _disappear, and the scene stayed exactly where it was hovering over Sayuri and Salt. Sayuri's hand was hovering in the air, as if she wanted to try and help too, but she pulled her hand away. She looked around for a moment, and left the area, before coming back with a pillow and a blanket. Carefully, she lifted Salt's head, and placed the pillow under it, and draped the blanket over him.

The scene ended there, the whole area fading into darkness. I barely had time to blink, and all of a sudden, the bookcases in front of me had snapped shut, as if there was never a hole in the wall to begin with.

_What the hell just happened? _I mean, I was pretty sure that was a memory, but as far as I knew, there was nothing in here to influence the fact it'd happened in the first place. If Mimi was behind this, I felt she would have appeared by now, but she never showed up. I puzzled over that, staring at the wall for a while, before I shook my head. _The room is growing Yayaka, and there's nothing more to look at here. Just go back to Uexkull. _

I turned, and saw the rabbit-man was a lot further away than I remember him being, and got mad at myself. _What the hell am I doing, standing around watching things? We've wasted more than enough time! _I quickly scanned the room, and saw a door in one of the corners, that my brain must have somehow skipped over entirely. "Hey, Uex," I called, and pointed at the door. I wasn't sure he'd understand me, but his ear twitched and he looked, and ran over to where I pointed. It wasn't long before I charged off to go join him.

Of course, there was no way to know for certain what was on the other side of the door. It could have been more rooms that grew even faster than this one, or it could have dropped into a pool of acid that'd melt us down to the bone in seconds… _But there's not exactly anywhere else to go in here unless one of those books hides a secret passageway, like in Cocona's stories… _I wasn't gonna go and test that theory though. By the time you checked ten books in that room, another hundred would have been spat out onto the shelves.

I put my hand on the doorhandle and flung it open…

…To reveal a room that at first glance, looked like it was made up of stacks of coins. Well, not all of them. Some looked like they'd just been carelessly splashed all over, in little mounds and hills. And the piles were growing too. Small discs of metal, in all sorts of shapes and colours, were dripping down like sparkling rain, some landing neatly on the little coin towers, and others adding to the great mess on the floor.

Cautiously, I stepped in. Nothing happened. I tried to call Uexkull into the room, and he followed, but his ears were flicking in all directions with the clattering coins falling from above. The only other noise I could hear was him sniffing, as if there was a scent in this room he was trying to pick up. "Can you smell something?" I asked.

The green rabbit gave no answer. I swept my gaze around the room, trying to keep an eye out for any danger, when one of the coins caught my eye. I knelt down to get a better look, and found myself looking at a Japanese yen coin. Only 100 yen, so it wasn't really worth much, but the fact I saw a coin from _Earth _in Pure Illusion puzzled me. _How the heck did it get here? _Then I felt a little burst of energy. _Cocona probably still had tons of spare coins on her from that day in town. Maybe it's one of hers! _I dashed around the piles of coins, trying to see if there were any more there and… Well, it was hard to say. There _was _more than just that 100yen coin, but there were also American quarters and dollars, English pence and pounds, Euros and cents… Actually, _all _of the coins in here were from Earth. I looked up at the ceiling. _How the hell are they all getting here? _I wondered, watching the glimmering discs fall from the ceiling.

There was a sudden metallic clatter as Uexkull hopped over the piles of coins to another part of the room. "H-hey!" I said, surprised, and ran along after him. "You could at least answer my question before you run off like that!" I scolded him as I caught up. Not that he could probably understand me anyway, but still, it annoyed me that he just wandered off with no warning. But as my eyes trailed along the floor, and caught sight of what he'd smelt, I couldn't blame him.

"Papika?!" I exclaimed, surprised. Sure enough, the pink-haired girl was there, barely visible under a stack of coins, only a tuft of hair and a closed eye exposed. I clawed some of the coins aside, trying to dig her out. Uexkull saw what I was doing, and helped. Together, we'd managed to get her out of there a lot quicker than I would have been able to if I was here alone, or even with Nyunyu. I barely had time to be grateful I'd ended up being sent to Pure Illusion with the rabbit-man, before worry overrode every other thought I had.

"Hey, Papika, wake up!" I said, fear starting to spike. _How long has she been here? _Assuming the amount of 'rain' from above never changed, it could easily have been a week. _Shit, is she even still alive?! _"Hey! Papika!" I cried. I turned my attention away from her, and went for the pocket in my weapon belt that contained my collapsible water bottle. Like everything else on me, it hadn't really been 'refilled', so there probably wasn't much left, but it was all I had. Carefully, I put a hand under Papika's head, and tried to lift her up, so… _What should I do? Should I splash some on her first to try and wake her up? Or should I try and force some down her throat? …Is she even breathing?_

Cursing myself for not thinking to check that right away, I leant down, putting my ear to her head, and heard light breaths. I felt some relief at that, and tried to gently shake her. "Come on, Papika, you're tougher than this… You can get up," I said, trying to convince myself she was fine, as well as try and encourage her, if she could somehow hear me.

There still wasn't any reaction from the pink-haired girl. My mind began to run a little wild with unwanted thoughts. _If she even wakes up, would she want to see me? After I wasn't there to protect her from my shadow? Hell, what if she was attacked by it again and it left her here? I'd be the _last _person she'd wanna see… _As much as I wanted to hold Papika up, the strength was leaving my arms as more and more guilt began to weigh me down. _I've been so horrible to her… _Memories came back to me of the times in Pure Illusion when we'd been enemies. _She has to hate me after everything I've done… _My mind then drifted to the memories of Papikana as she grew young and old inside the tree, over and over. _She's been alone for literal lifetimes, with only Cocona for company in fleeting moments… And I've just been there, wishing Cocona would be mine, for not even a fraction of that time… Wanting to keep the two apart, just so I could have her all to myself…_

I thought of the memory of her at the hospital, chasing Buu, only to see me and Cocona hanging out. How she looked genuinely sad for both of us, even though she'd never met me at all. _She cared before she even really knew me… _

"_Please, don't hate Papika." _Mimi's words echoed in my head.

"How could I ever hate you?" I whispered, tears rolling down my face and onto Papika's. "You're so kind to me. Kinder than I deserve… I could be in the desert dying of thirst, begging for a drop of water, and you'd find me a whole oasis…" My arms had tightened around the pink-haired girl's body. "Come on you softie, wake up… Don't you wanna see Cocona again?" My voice lightened up a little, mentioning the blue-haired girl's name, but it wasn't enough to get rid of the sadness that weighed on my heart at the thought of losing one of my friends. "Come on, Papika. Wake up, and we can find her together. She'll want to see you again." I squeezed her a little tighter. "I'm sorry, Papika… I'm so sorry for everything I've done to hurt you… Just please…" I could barely talk any more. My throat was tight and my voice breaking as much as my heart was.

The movement was slight, so I thought I'd imagined it, when I felt her stir in my arms. But there was a small groan from Papika, followed by a very weak voice "Ya… ya… ka?"

I jumped up at the sound of my name, and looked at Papika again, but her eyes were still closed. _But she has to know I'm here. She said my name. _I wiped my eyes, and swallowed hard, trying to muster whatever commanding aura I could. "We're gonna get you out of here. I might have messed up before, but I ain't gonna mess up this time. We'll find Cocona and Yuyu and get you all back home safe," I said, trying to sound a lot stronger than I felt. After my speech, I passed Papika over to Uexkull, who carried her easily, and once again, I was thankful to have the rabbit on my team. _Maybe I'll find him something to chew when this is all over._

Suddenly, his ears pricked up, alert. His nose was twitching. "What's up with you? Can you smell something?" I asked. I wasn't expecting him to move, but he nodded, and stared, oddly focused on looking in one direction. I felt a tiny spark of hope. "Cocona?" I guessed. The spark of hope became a flame when the rabbit turned to me briefly to nod again.

"Then what the hell are we waiting for? Let's go get her!" I said, suddenly feeling a lot more energetic than I had a minute ago. "Lead the way!"

He hopped off, keeping a secure hold of Papika as he dashed through the piles of coins in the huge room, and I followed after him. _If Hidaka's map was right, then we'll run into Yuyu before we run into Cocona in this world. We can rescue all of them nice and easy. _

As we ran through, I noticed that there was a lot more in this place than just the coins. The next thing we seemed to be running through was heaps of old socks. Mostly odd ones, rarely pairs. Most of them friggin' stunk of ages old sweat, from having been used. Thankfully, the smell didn't seem to knock Uexkull off the trail he was following, but running through there made me wanna reach for my breathing mask.

After the Valley of Socks, were keys in all sorts of shapes and sizes. Modern house keys, to older medieval keys, to comically oversized 'keys to the city' you see in American cartoons sometimes. Like the coins, most of them were just in great huge heaps on the floor, but some were arranged, hanging from rings, neatly on the far-away walls, in-between all sorts of paintings. I vaguely recognised one of the art styles as a Vincent van Gogh one, but I wouldn't be able to tell you what it was. _Are all of these paintings meant to be famous? _I felt like they could have been, but at the same time that just made me wonder more. _What the heck are coins and paintings (and possibly socks and keys) from Earth all doing in Pure Illusion?_

Past the keys was a ton of ancient pottery and statues, and planks of wood all resting against them, parts of it looking like an old market place. A couple of stray weapons were propped up all around too. I didn't really know much about swords and crossbows and all that stuff, but a fair number of them gave off this aura of craftsmanship, as if they were carefully forged to do great things. One of them that stuck out to me looked like it'd spent centuries at the bottom of a lake and had the English letters 'EXCALIBUR' on it.

And then… things got weirder.

After running through an area in this massive room (which I was starting to think was some sort of corridor) which was filled with all sorts of rugs (old, new, woven, knitted…) Uexkull kept running ahead without stopping, with Papika bobbing on his back, but I started to slow down a little running through all this mess. _There's so many things in this place, but there doesn't seem to be anyone around… So, how did they get here?_

I knelt down next to a tapestry, which had been neatly folded on the floor, and felt the rough fabric under my hands as I brushed my fingers over it… something about it bugged me, but I wouldn't say what it was exactly until I pressed down lightly, and felt a hard, circular shape underneath. Dropping Yuyu's metal arm, I put a hand into the folds of the tapestry. My fingers closed around a wooden disc, and pulling it out revealed white cloth snapped onto it and a pattern that… confused the hell out of me. Unlike everything else in this corridor, this thing wasn't from Earth, no… _but I recognised it. _Hell, I was there when I saw it being created. Day after day, trapped in a time loop for three weeks…

I was looking down at Yuyu's embroidery of the yuri-hell-school. _How the crap did _THAT _get here? _I don't quite know what happened to me, but I got an urge to root through the tapestry again. I stuck my hand deep inside, and my fingers touched another circular wooden frame... And another. I grabbed each of them and pulled them out, only to find more and more buried in there. Twenty-one of them to be exact. They were identical, complete with a carefully stitched monotone recreation of the same building. One for every day we spent trapped there… _But… these can't be here. That world was destroyed, these shouldn't exist anymore. They can't have just gotten lost and found their way here… Someone must have moved them, or something…_

I stopped thinking for a moment.

'_Lost'… _That word hit me. _The ever-expanding bookshelves that kept filling themselves… _a vision accompanied that of books being tucked away and forgotten in attics, somehow being sucked into the floor before being spat onto the shelves in the fish-shaped room._ The coins that kept raining from the sky… _As if they fell down the side of a couch in one world, and somehow were pulled into Pure Illusion. _Odd socks… _Cocona was normally a neat and organised child, but she said to me a few times how her grandma could sometimes only find one of Cocona's socks when it came to laundry day, and the other was nowhere to be seen… of course, it'd be pretty damn hard to find something that'd strayed into another dimension. _The sword with English letters… _Cocona had told me about a story once of a guy called King Arthur who had a sword called 'Excalibur'…

It was weird… Not just the physical things either, but that memory I saw in the room with all the bookshelves too. I'm still not really sure how that worked, or whose it was, but if lost items could be in Pure Illusion, why not a lost memory, someone had long forgotten?

_A World of Lost Things…_

This was… something new. I knew you could encounter worlds with almost anything in Pure Illusion, but the idea of a world like this… It was a place I'd be tempted to explore on any other day, just to see what I'd find. _Lost items, lost memories…_

_And lost people._

I leapt back up to my feet, running as fast as I could, and cursing the fact I got distracted. _I shouldn't have stopped. What if I end up getting lost in here too? Where the hell are Uexkull and Papika? _

I didn't quite take as much notice of the things around me as I tried to find the rabbit-man. My heart leapt anytime I saw green or pink together, but half of the time it was just some cloth, or a painting or something. My vision began to swirl and sorta blur, with how fast I was trying to move my head, trying to look at everything at once, so I couldn't possibly miss any signs of the two of them… It didn't really occur to me to try reaching out with my bond to Papika to try and work out where they were. By the time that thought even crossed my mind, I tripped up over something and landed flat on the floor.

"Fraggin' hell..." I muttered, trying to ignore the pain in my ribs, which had flared up again with the impact. It's a lot better than it was, and Yuyu's dragon-hide repairs helped protect my damaged side, but it still hurt, to the point of being agitating. I put my hand flat against the floor and was about to push myself up, and turned to look and see what I'd tripped over. Something encased in a silver wrapper. _That looks like an Asclepius ration... _My stomach growled at the thought of food, so as much as I didn't really want to, I reached around and grabbed it. Tearing open the wrapper, I saw it was pretty much just a cluster of crumbs in there, but I wolfed it down anyway. I had no idea if Flip Flap got some nutrients or food into my system with a drip or anything in the time I'd spent in their medical room, but I felt it was probably an idea to eat while I could.

I swallowed the last mouthful, and got myself into a sitting position, figuring I should rest while I had the chance too. I didn't _feel _tired, but I did promise Toto I'd try not to push myself too much. There didn't appear to be any enemies around, so this was probably a safe time to take a break. I thought for a second about contacting him, and went to grab Yuyu's metal arm, only to remember I'd dropped the damn thing when I found all the embroidery and forgot to pick it up.

"I probably couldn't find that again if I tried…" I mumbled, thinking out loud.

"Have you lost something?" Asked a chirping voice. I nearly leapt out of my skin in surprise. _Where the crap did that come from? _My hands drifted down to my weapon belt's grappling wires, and I stood up, suddenly alert. _It sounded like it was close… _Although the chirping tone of the voice appeared friendly, there seemed to be an underlying hint of menace to it that my paranoid mind wouldn't let go of. Before I knew it, I was running again.

I didn't really have a direction in mind, but even if I did, I don't think that would have made a difference really. No matter where I ended up there were countless objects strewn all over, blocking my path. In my hurry I'd probably upset some of the objects and started some sort of chain reaction, I could hear something that sounded like I'd angered a bunch of sentient church bells. Echoing clangs and clatters, all coming from at least 3 different places…

I jumped heaps of letters and parcels, ducked under an archway of crumbling stone, and just about managed to hop out of the way of a stray skateboard, nudging a rusted suit of armour as I did so… _Wait, did something move? _I thought I saw a corner of something metalic glint through a gap a short distance away. The noise of bells ringing seemed to be getting closer. _Is it heading towards me? _I stopped, ducking down for a second, as I scanned around, looking for a 'busier' part of the room I could hide in.

The direction I'd settled on took me through what looked like an antique store, if a herd of rhinos had trampled through it. Broken, dusty tables, wardrobes, and wooden chests, all jutting in a haphazard maze of chaos. It was difficult to worm my way through all that, sure, but if I was being hunted down, whatever was following me would have a lot of trouble getting through _that… _Or I hoped so at least. I turned to look over my shoulder, to see if my pursuer was still after me, and soon regretted doing so. Not because I saw anything, but because it was dumb, and meant I wasn't looking where I was going. In my panic, I wasn't thinking right. Amongst a gathering of mouldy armchairs all hunched in a circle, an umbrella stand suddenly fell over, spilling its contents in front of me. A spotty yellow umbrella caught my leg as I tried to run past, and I landed flat on the floor again.

"Craps sake…" I cursed, irritating my ribs again. _I need to stop tripping up…_

"Aww… did you fall down?" The mysterious voice asked, which what I assumed was mock concern.

"Shut it," I growled in response. _How the hell can I hear a voice so close, when I can't see anyone?_

"My, my, that's not very nice. I'm only offering to help you, and you're being very rude. Let me see if I can fix that…"

The sound of bells, suddenly seemed closer, and a lot louder. As I pushed myself back up, my arms feeling a little wobbly under my own weight, I saw a flash of bronze through the forest of furniture. It was then that I began to realise that the 'clattering' bell sound wasn't quite as random as I thought… If I focused, I could make out the fact it seemed to be in a sequence.

CLANG! _(One,) _CLANG! _(Two,)_ CLANG! _(Three,)_ CLANG! _ (Four…)_ and then a slight pause, before it started all over again.

Each sound bounced off everything around it, disguising the fact it belonged to one being. _As if it were animal, stalking me on heavy metal feet… _An image came to me of a blocky, metal monster made of bronze, about a second before I lost the ability to think, due to the deafening din. It was powerful enough to make my body begin to feel numb, and I could hardly move to try and cover my ears, in a feeble attempt to block out the noise. Maybe it was muscle memory, or some habit that'd been ingrained in me, but I unconsciously activated my visor as my hand went to my head. The damaged screen appeared in front of my eyes showing a clash of yellow, pink, blue and red.

Although it was hard to think, the colours managed to strike a part of my mind that hadn't been shut down by the cacophony. _I'm here for a reason. I need to find my friends! _

It was tough to move, when I could feel the noise vibrating all the way in my bones, but somehow, I found the strength to stand up again. To lift one leg, and then the other. I kept my hands up over my ears, trying to combat the noise and shouted as loudly as I could to try and power myself up. "I need to find my friends! Flip flapping!"

The only hint I had that any of that was said out loud at all, was the fact my mouth opened and closed. I couldn't hear a word I said, no matter how I tried to fight sheer volume of the bronze monsters. I didn't have any amorphous on me, so yelling 'flip flapping' wouldn't have really had any effect…

…or so I thought.

On my broken visor screen, the red stripes seemed to glow.

The most I could do was frown to express my confusion, before I ended up heading for that direction.

Even though my vision was filled with a rainbow of coloured slashes, I somehow still found a way through the endless mess, avoiding the bronze monsters (which were the yellow things that showed up on my visor). There was a close call, where one just merrily stomped through ancient artifacts, crushing them to powder, just an inch from my own foot, but by some miracle, that was the most dangerous encounter I had.

It turned out my destination, ended up being a building. How one had gotten into the World of Lost Things, (also making me wonder, 'How the crapping hell do you lose an _entire building?!_'_)_ I had no idea, but the pink, blue, and red dots were all in there. I clicked my visor off at that point and… didn't rush in right away. Something about the building seemed really familiar to me, but I couldn't quite place my finger on what exactly_. _It wasn't the yuri-hell-school, I knew that much. If it was, I probably would have just strolled on in, not questioning how it got here, because that would have at least made _sense _to me, but this… this just looked like a plain old house…

It puzzled me for a while, until a vague memory of an identical one in a jungle made up of pencil-sketched lines came to mind. _One of Mimi's houses? _That seemed plausible. _She could have ended up here at some point, too… _

I paused for a second. _I can hear my own thoughts again._

I turned around. The three bronze monsters that had been trudging after me, and hunting me down had stopped moving. They sat; heads bowed all looking at me intently. _As if they were trying to herd me to this one place… And now they're standing guard, so I can't run away from the house… _

I swallowed. My mouth felt as dry as tree bark, that'd been out in the sun all day. At first, I was terrified by the thought of being trapped like this… But then I just got suspicious. The monster's behaviour seemed too… organised for my liking. _Has someone planned this? _I scowled; my fear being pushed aside by my growing anger, as I thought about how these monsters, yellow dots, seemed to have led me to the red one. _Am I just another part in someone else's experiment? _My body began to feel hot, and my blood started to roar. _I've been _trying _to follow that damn dot all this time… Was it just somebody messing with me?_

Pissed off, I slammed a heavy kick to the front door. Toto said not to push myself in here, but I didn't care about that any more. _Has this all been just a part of some game? _What felt like the scent of a million wild flowers cam wafting out the house, but as overpowering as it was, in my fury, I was able to dismiss it. _First Asclepius, and now this? _That didn't stop me from going over to the teapot and smashing the thing against a wall. _Am I just a toy for the damn universe to play with?!_

I didn't really register if the smell was going or not. I was too busy dashing through every room in the house, trying to find the spot those three signals came from. _And it's taken my best friends too! _Any doors that were closed were promptly met with a steel-capped boot, as I made my way through the building.

There was nothing downstairs. I skipped every second step, pretty much flying up to the next floor of the house, stomped on the final step at the top, ready to charge off… only to end up standing there, bewildered.

I'd been upstairs in Mimi's house before, to go to the bedroom Papika stayed in when she was attacked, and… it looked nothing like this. Here, there was pretty much just a corridor. The walls and ceiling were a deep black, giving the impression of an endless space, with the only visible thing in it a wooden walkway leading to that one door… My anger was burning out a little, and anxiety began to grow in me again, not expecting this change. Instead of running through here, like I had every other room in the house, this time… I walked slowly. Carefully. Feeling a little shaky, I stuck an arm out so I could steady myself against the wall, only for my hand to meet with empty air. _There _are_ no walls…_The darkness around me began to feel overwhelming. Like I could drown in here… I took a deep breath, but it felt like I wasn't getting any air.

And that was when the path behind me began to crumble.

I felt it, more than saw it. There were creaks, and cracks, as the wood behind fell away, and the path I was standing on became less stable. Instantly, I was running for that one door at the end of the room. The only chance I got to look back, was when I opened the door, and slammed it behind me. Not only was the path I'd just been standing on gone, but the stairs that'd taken me to this place too. I was gasping for breath in this new room, trying to calm down and make sense of what had just happened. I turned to get a look at my new surroundings…

And my fear only grew…

For I was standing in an entirely enclosed room. No windows, doors, no source of light around at all, and no way to see into the outside world… Yet in the middle, there was one object, very clearly highlighted, easy to see… and impossible to avoid.

One that filled me with utter dread.

"What's wrong?" Asked the chirping voice from before. "Are you afraid to face yourself?"

"Shut it!" I shouted, my voice shaking. _That can't be real! I can't be here, I'm not dreaming!_ Panicked, I tried fumbling with the handle of the door which I _swear _I was still holding onto, only to tighten my grip on thin air. _What?! _I turned to face the door, preparing to launch a kick and break it down…

But there was no door. No way out, and nothing else I could do. _I have to look at it…_

Reluctantly, I turned…

And faced Cocoro's Mirror…

* * *

_Authors note: I sorta cobbled this chapter together from 9k words worth of scraps I was going to have happen a little earlier in the story, but had to discard. I felt the timing for the World of Lost Things was better now, and I'm happy I didn't have to throw that idea out completely… even if it ended up a little messy, sorry about that. I also wasn't quite planning for chapter progress to be so slow, but I'm still sorta trying to work out how to put a few things in the story. There should only be 2 or 3 chapters left after this one… No idea when they'll come out, but hopefully some time._

_Speaking of Flip Flappers projects though, I may be a part of another one soon that isn't writing related. I don't quite wanna say too much, about that though as I REALLY don't wanna jinx it, but I'm super excited about it, and I super hope it gets going soon. If something comes of it I'll post more details in a future chapter._


	22. Chapter 21

_Yayaka_

I was expecting to see someone standing in the mirror when I turned to face it, and it scared me a for a second when I saw it wasn't my normal reflection or my red-eyed one. Thankfully I felt that fear for about a second, then my brain registered the blue hair and purple eyes of the person I was looking at.

"Cocoro?" I asked. Relief flooded my body, as the girl in the mirror nodded. "Thank frick it's you, I thought it'd be someone else."

The girl in the mirror seemed to huff silently, annoyed. "How can it be someone else? You're looking in a mirror, aren't you? Of course, you'd see yourself in it."

I blinked, my relief becoming confusion. "But I'm _not _looking at myself."

"That's your problem! You can't see yourself _at all."_

"...What do you mean? Hell, why would I _want _to see myself in this damn mirror?"

Cocoro's shoulders fell, as if she'd sighed. "It doesn't matter. If you want to save your friends, you're going to have to face her, whether you want to or not." With that last line, she dissolved into the darkness, leaving me alone again in the room.

"H-hey! Wait up! You didn't explain anything!" I got closer to the mirror, and grabbed the sides, trying to shake it. "Come back, Cocoro!" If I had the ability to think properly, I would have been screaming at myself for being an idiot and touching the mirror like that. Before I really knew what was happening, I was suddenly thrown across the room, like a wall of wind had just slammed into me. Pain branched through my back and ribs, and my next breath came as a hiss. _What the crap was that? _

Although I'd been hurt, I was still okay to sit up, so I put a hand to the ground, and did just that… only to nearly leap to my feet with shock.

There was someone else in the room now.

My heart was pounding, with fear and adrenaline, not sure how to react to the new arrival. It took my brain a second to catch up and register what I was seeing exactly. Human, at least, I could make out that much. Boots and trousers just like mine, maybe a little frayed at the bottom… Actually, all of their equipment was identical to mine, just with red instead of yellow on the body… _Wait. I know this person. _I looked them right in the eyes at that point, and my purple was met with the ruby-red of Yuyu's. But… there was still something a little odd about her. She was missing an arm, sure, that was kinda strange as I'd never seen her like that before, but that wasn't what was bugging me. It was her _smile. _I'd almost never seen one that big or lively before in her face, apart from maybe when we were playing Rock Band at the arcade.

"Yayaka, you're better," she said, her voice as light as a summer's breeze. Her face didn't really change, but I swear her smile somehow became warmer as she spoke. "I'm glad."

"Yeah, I'm better," I said, returning her smile. I suddenly felt a bit odd. _Do I normally smile at the twins? _I… wasn't sure. Something at the back of my mind was whispering that something about this situation wasn't right. _But what exactly?_ I couldn't really pinpoint it, but there was something else that I thought was weird about this situation. "How did you get here and find me so quickly?" I asked.

"Hole device. Set coordinates to your tracker."

She responded a little faster than I would have thought would be normal for her. _She's standing here smiling, something she wouldn't normally do either, and her tone of voice is completely different too… But I gave her a speech in the puppet world, didn't I? She's probably happy that I somehow managed to free her from only being able to obey orders, and also relieved that I'm alive, too._ I dismissed anything else along that line of thinking, and got to the main point of why I was back in Pure Illusion. "Have you seen Cocona or Papika anywhere?"

Yuyu's head tilted to the side. "Cocona and Papika? Why?"

I explained the situation quickly. "When you sent me back alone, Cocona and Papika got worried and came after us. They wanted to make sure you were okay on your own, but it's been two days back home, and they haven't come back."

Yuyu frowned, before righting her head. "Two days?" she echoed.

"Yeah, I got worried when I heard that, too," I said. I clicked up my visor to see if it gave me any clues as to where they were.

"Broken screen?" Yuyu asked.

"Yeah, it's been busted for a while…" I replied. Red lines hovered over Yuyu, unsurprisingly. I spun around, trying to see if I could catch a hint of blue… and I did, when my line of sight fell on the mirror again… along with another patch of red. _The red dot… _"I think we need to go in the mirror." I said. "Cocona's signal's coming from there, along with a signal I've been chasing, it has to be able to take us there." I know I'd just been zapped by the mirror a little while ago, so what I was saying was probably really dumb, but the red and the blue never seemed to leave that space. _Inside the frame has to be a Hole or something… _Saying that, I got an idea. "Hey, can you try setting a Hole device to Cocona's location by using the tracker in her arm?"

Yuyu blinked, seemingly confused, before nodding. She reached for one of the pockets on her armour and pulled one out. With dexterity I wasn't quite expecting, she seemed to carefully fiddle with some rings on the Hole device I'd never noticed before, and threw it to the ground. Nothing happened. Without needing an order, Yuyu did it again, and again, using other devices from her pockets.

"Not working. Room may be interfering." She said, as I knelt down to pick up one of the devices, she'd thrown on the ground to get a closer look at it. Not only had I never noticed that they had rings on one end, they seemed to have really tiny numbers on them too, and a line going vertically through them. Without really thinking about it, I put the Hole in my pocket and turned to look at the mirror again.

"You got here okay though," I said.

"Possible to arrive by Hole. Doesn't mean it's possible to leave by Hole."

I was about to ask her if that could actually happen, I mean, we've never had any trouble with it before, but it's Pure Illusion. _Anything's possible in here, so why wouldn't some worlds disable Hole technology? One Hole managed to warp us to the yuri-hell-school when it should have taken us home after all, it's probably not the only world that can mess with our stuff like that._

"No wonder Cocona's been stuck for two days..." I mumbled to myself. _If Holes won't work in this place, she could have tried to get out all she liked, and nothing would have worked, unless she could make one naturally with Papika... But they got separated. _I frowned at that thought. I mean it's _true_, they ended up separate from each other… _But how exactly? I would have thought with their bond they wouldn't have trouble with that at all... _I shook my head to clear it. _The more time I spend thinking about it rather than acting on it, the more time we're wasting, and the longer they're stuck here and in danger._ "We need to go save her." I said to Yuyu, standing back up. The silver-haired girl stared at me for a little seeming hesitant, before looking at the mirror.

"You scared?" I asked. She nodded. I held out my hand for her to take, "come on," I said, trying to encourage her, as I turned back to face the mirror.

When she eventually did take my hand, I got a jolt of surprise. Not because she took her time in doing so, and not even because it was cold. This time her hand was _warm. _It took me couple of seconds to remember what we were about to do, and why she'd taken my hand in the first place. I wrapped my fingers tightly around her hand, so we shouldn't get separated if something weird happened, and pulled her into the mirror with me.

* * *

My body was hit by a shock of cold, as if I'd walked into a cascade of ice water, rather than solid glass. Thankfully the feeling only lasted a second or two, before me and Yuyu made it through the mirror and into a familiar place. I wasn't sure how I felt about being in the metal forest again. Cautious was probably the first word that came to mind.

"Don't touch the trees…" I said, remembering how I'd fallen through one last time. I tried to pull my hand away from Yuyu's, but she seemed reluctant to let go, giving me a light squeeze. _I guess neither of us can end up accidentally wandering away from the other If we're connected like this. Maybe she's onto something… _Using my free hand, I clicked my visor up, to see if it gave us some direction to go. Wherever the metal trees were, no weird coloured stripes showed up on my visor at all, like they were overriding a signal. Just as I was about to worry that meant we'd have no way of rescuing Cocona from this place I caught a tiny fragment of blue on my screen. Hidden, and tucked deep away through the maze of a thousand plants. I crouched and leaned, trying to make sure that my eyes weren't just playing tricks on me, and that I _was _seeing something blue there. Thankfully, it never disappeared outright… But at one point I saw a small speck of red next to the blue. _We should hurry. _

"Let's go," I said to Yuyu. It was odd being able to see so clearly through my visor in this world. Normally, there was some form of distortion, or everything was just a clash of coloured lines, but the trees were clear as day, not even effected. Willow trees were a shimmering curtain of gold fronds, swaying in the breeze. I could see every patch of bark on a bronze oak tree. Getting a closer look at some of the leaves from a low-hanging branch, I could see the veins of each leaf carefully stamped onto them. No doubt if I ran a finger along them, I'd be able to feel the slightly rough texture too… Well, if I didn't end up being thrown to another damn world anyway.

I'd gotten a little too focused on trying to keep track of the blue and red lines though the metal trees, to the point of nearby leading Yuyu through a metal holly bush. That gave me a sudden thought. "How're you holding up?" I asked. _The twins can't heal normally, and Yuyu's been wandering Pure Illusion for two days… _

"Holding up?" Yuyu echoed.

"Last time I saw you, you had to fight unicycle clowns and a big metal dog, and I haven't seen you in a while. Are you hurt? Are you okay to walk like this?"

"Not hurt. I am okay," she said. Well, that answered one question, but talking about the puppet world just raised another.

"How the hell did you get out of there alive?" I asked.

"Transformed."

That made me raise an eyebrow. I'd seen Toto and Nyunyu transformed in Pure Illusion, so I guess it was only a matter of time before Yuyu tried it too, but at the same time I got a little concerned. _Toto said they were both reverting back to amorphous after all, and he seemed in worse shape than I'd ever seen him at Flip Flap… _"Are you sure you're okay?"

Yuyu's face changed for a second. She seemed slightly annoyed for a moment, before her face became neutral again. "I am fine," she said, a hint of anger in her voice, and she took her hand away from mine. The world seemed to… shiver as she said those words, like it was about to fall apart at any second. My legs felt shaky, and I collapsed, feeling dizzy and nauseous all of a sudden. _What the heck was that? _Barely a moment later, the world was back to normal again, and I was okay to stand again.

"Yayaka?" Yuyu watched me with worry.

"I'm fine," I said. It was the truth. That sudden bout of…whatever I'd just experienced, was gone, almost as quickly as it came. _Something's wrong here… _A voice at the back of my mind whispered. I wanted to agree with it, but I couldn't place what exactly made me feel that way. "Come on, we need to help Cocona."

* * *

The sun seemed to be crawling slowly through the sky, casting shimmering light down onto the metal forest. In any other situation, I would have found the walk with Yuyu… peaceful. But I couldn't allow myself to get stuck or distracted again. _My shadow has trapped my friends in Pure Illusion somehow. I need to destroy it and set them free…_

I ducked under a branch made of twisted grey wire, and stopped walking when I heard my foot 'splash' in a puddle. Quickly I took my foot out and stepped back onto solid ground. Looking at my boot, it was as if I'd stepped into a river of golden paint. Shining beads dripped down the edge of the boot... _But it's not dissolving the material. _Carefully, I lowered my foot again into the gold liquid ahead of us, and put weight down on it. Solid surface underneath, and my boot only really ended up two inches deep. "It seems safe..." I mumbled out loud. _But what the heck is this doing here? Is the forest melting? _

Yuyu, who was walking a little way behind me, had just caught up and stood next to me. There was a thick-sounding 'splash' as she stepped into the melted gold too, although unlike me, she didn't stick around. Her eyes widened with the realisation that she seemed to be stepping into liquid, and she spun around, heading back into the metal forest.

"What're you scared of?" I called to her. "It's all fine, see?" I stomped around in the metal river, sending ripples through it. If it wasn't for all the liquid on top, I bet you it would have sounded like someone tapping cymbals together. I spun around, in case she'd spotted a monster or something hiding in the water, but I couldn't see anything. "Nothing's showing up on my visor, we'll be okay!"

Yuyu still didn't seem so sure. Slowly, she took a step towards me, staring down at the gold pool as if she was expecting it to leap up and bite her. I felt a bit dumb that it took me a moment to figure out. _It's pretty much a lake. She's been trapped under one before, of course she'd be terrified_. I took a few steps toward her, and held my hand out for her to take "I'm not gonna let you drown, Yuyu. I promise."

Yuyu didn't seem to react to me at all. I moved closer and waved my hand in front of her face. Her head twitched like a bird's as if she'd only just realised it was there. "We'll be okay," I said, trying to give her an encouraging smile. Slowly, she took my hand again, but a lot tighter than she had before. _She's gonna crush my bones if she holds it any tighter._ Giving her a light tug, I tried to gently ease her into the liquid gold, and coax her across the river with me.

Progress was slow. I know Yuyu wasn't walking at what felt like the pace of a tranquilised slug on purpose, but I was starting to get annoyed. _If this place wasn't across water of some sort, I'd probably be there and able to rescue Cocona by now… Hell, if Yuyu wasn't here at all and went through the Hole with me, everyone would be back home, and I wouldn't have to worry about anyone else on this stupid adventure… _But thinking about that brought up a point. _Where the hell did Papika and Uexkull go? Did they end up getting lost in the World of Lost Things? _I guess that had to be what happened, the only colours showing up on my visor now were red and blue. _I was so focused on trying to chase the coloured lines, that I probably ran through a Hole without even realising it. I mean when I went upstairs, there wasn't exactly a house's upper floor…_

_So, if Papika and Uexkull were still together in that world somehow, how could they get out? If Uexkull could somehow sniff out Yuyu's metal arm amongst all the mess and Papika could contact Flip Flap… Or maybe Papika knows a way to contact Mimi in Pure Illusion… _That's all I could hope at least. I wasn't so sure thinking about those things was such a good idea, because not only was I getting impatient in wanting to get to Cocona right away and having to lug Yuyu behind me, but now I was getting worried if the pink-haired girl and the rabbit were both okay. _There's no telling how long Hidaka's experiment will take if we _did _need Toto, Buu or Nyunyu to come rescue us, or even how long we've been here. It could have been all of two seconds since we left and it could still be hours before they get a result— _

"Yayaka, your hand is tense." Came a voice from behind me. I turned and looked, seeing my knuckles were white, and my fingers clamped around Yuyu's hand. It was weird, she didn't seem as scared as she was a little while ago, now suddenly, _I _was the scared one. _**(("Not exactly useful right now, are you?"))**_

"Shut it…" I muttered, without thinking.

"Yayaka?" Yuyu's voice behind me was quiet, and she sounded… a little hurt.

"Sorry, Yuyu, not you. I just…" _**(("Wouldn't it be better to leave her behind? She's only holding you back…"))**_

_But she'll turn into amorphous if we don't get out of here fast!_

_**(("Just use her power to transform…"))**_

_What if I kill her? What if I've been speeding up her death?!_

_**(("I can do it then. I can use her power, and take you to Cocona. You'll be her hero, and she'll love you. Just switch with me…")) **_

Before I knew it, I was running, dragging Yuyu behind me. Somehow, she seemed to manage to keep up with me. _But what if she's using the rest of the Cocona amorphous, or her own power to do that? Would _this _be killing her quicker too? _

I stopped dead in my tracks, and roared "What the hell am I supposed to do?!" at the sky. I stamped a foot down in frustration, sending a tower of gold liquid into the air.

"Yayaka?" I heard my name behind me. _Yuyu… _She sounded so concerned. _How the hell can she want to follow me through all of this? I'm wasting time standing here. I should be getting to Cocona, but… _All I could really feel was anger and frustration in myself. Tears were threatening to spill down my cheeks. _I should be moving, and all I can do is get stuck in my own damn head and cry!_ As much as I wanted to, my body felt sorta heavy, and I was losing the will to move. Yeah, I know it's stupid, I had every reason in the world to keep going right now, so I could rescue Yuyu and Cocona, find Papika and Uexkull, and get back to base, but… _**(("Why don't you do it then?")) **_…everything just felt so… _impossible _right then. _How can I save all these people? It's… It's too much. _The overwhelming weight of the task I'd taken on was starting to press down on me. _I took on too much… I can't do this… What the hell am I doing? I just rushed off right after I got hurt, I should have taken my time… I should have prepared for this! Instead, I'm just this… awful, reckless person, diving into danger without a second thought. I could be taking Yuyu to her death, leading her to that red dot…She shouldn't be here. It's my shadow, and my problem! …And I've just made it worse… All because I ran into Pure Illusion in the first place, not only is Yuyu stuck having to deal with me while slowly becoming a hunk of crystal, but Papika, Cocona and Uexkull have all ended up getting lost and stuck, and unable to get out of here either… All because of my stupid selfish wishes…_

"It's all my fault…"

"Yayaka..." I heard my name whispered softly, before something warm wrapped around me slowly. I was about to lash it away, thinking was a monster, only so see it was Yuyu's one arm. She gave me a gentle squeeze. I just stood there, frozen for a little while. _Yuyu... cares about me? _I mean, I guess she must, if she was worried about me and wanted to tag along in Pure Illusion with me in the first place, but this... I can't say I'd expected this kind of behaviour from one of the twins, or at least not directed towards _me _of all people... _Especially after this stupid mess… _

It was that moment I looked down at the golden liquid below us and saw a very different reflection to the scene that was happening right now. Yuyu's hair seemed to be blonde like mine, instead of silver, and instead of myself, I saw Cocoro looking at me with her sharp purple gaze.

_"Isn't there something you should be doing?" _She asked, grouchy. Having her talk to me like that made me mad. First with her, for getting pissed off with me when I was trying my best, and then at myself for thinking that standing around and crying in the middle of a gold river was 'my best'. _I'm sad and angry, and that's okay, but someone I care about is in danger. They need help, and standing around here isn't going to do anything. _I wiped my eyes and gently pushed Yuyu away from me. I thanked her quickly, and lead the way again, wanting to get out of this place as fast as possible.

* * *

Maybe I just needed to cry some of my stress out earlier, but after that, we seemed to be going a lot faster than we were, and ended up at the other side of the gold river before I really knew it.

We were greeted by a forest of metal mushrooms at the base of a mountain. Some towered over us, like giant umbrellas, blotting out the sun with their great shadows, and others were small and clustered together. A part of me almost expected the little ones to turn around and peek up at us, as if they were tiny gnomes in one of Cocona's stories, and were startled by the two giants that interrupted their meeting, but they never moved.

The red and blue lines seemed to be just around the corner of one of the mountains. I swallowed, nervous, and tried to gather any courage I had…

No good. My legs were starting to shake a little. I turned to Yuyu, seeking reassurance. Her head was mostly facing towards me, but it tilted down slightly, and she was looking away from me. _Is she afraid too? _Maybe she was. _Now I think about it, she's been alone in Pure Illusion for two Flip Flap days too, it wasn't just Cocona and Papika that got lost in here. Not only that, but she's been turning to amorphous too, just like Toto. She probably just wants to get back to Flip Flap where she can be safe._ I closed my eyes and took a breath. _I'm not alone at least. Yuyu seems scared too. If I can't be brave for myself… maybe I can be brave for her._

"Hey," I said softly. Yuyu's eyes flicked in my direction. I tried to give her a reassuring smile, which probably turned out a lot shakier than I was hoping. "It's just a little further, and then we can go home."

The smile died on my face when I turned back to face the red and blue lines. "Just a little more…" I said, trying to motivate myself. I hesitated for a moment, before I took a step towards saving the one, I loved the most… And another step towards facing a side of myself that I wish didn't exist.

* * *

The space we entered was a place I could only seem to describe as a clockwork chasm. We were walking on clear glass, above hundreds, maybe even thousands, of gears, cogs and pipes in all sizes. They clicked and whirred against each other, moving smoothly as if they were a part of a greater contraption. Despite the order of this place, having everything working together, the colours below were the complete opposite of neat and organised. Heck, it looked like someone had carved every single piece of machinery from wax crayons of any colour they could find. Whites clashed with bold reds, meeting joyful yellows, which highlighted the deepest blues, greens, and greys… The longer I looked down, the more it felt like I was lost in a kaleidoscope, with colours and patterns tumbling endlessly against each other, and each one painting a unique image, that'd never again be seen by the human eye…

"Beautiful, isn't it?" I jumped and spun around to face the speaker. I wasn't surprised to see it was my red-eyed reflection (I'm gonna get sick of calling her that soon enough, I'll just call her Yamika.) Good _gosh, _just the _sight _of her was enough to piss me off now.

"What the hell do you want?" I hissed, putting an arm protectively in front of Yuyu.

Yamika raised an eyebrow at my action. "I think the question here is Yayaka, what the hell do _you _want?" She gestured with her arm as if offering me something, and looked at a spot over my shoulder. I narrowed my eyes at Yamika, suspicious, and tried to guide Yuyu somewhere to the edge of the clockwork chasm, so I could keep my enemy, and whatever she was looking at in my sight. When I finally turned to look, all I had to say was "crapping hell…"

My anger seemed to fizzle away upon sight of the five other people that seemed to have materialised into the area, but my heart suddenly felt like it was either going to explode or give out altogether, at the rate it was going. Well, I _was _looking at five Cocona's, so it shouldn't have been a surprise my heart was beating like crazy, probably trying to break free from my ribs so it could go and pledge itself to any of the girls standing there.

They weren't the real Cocona, of course, there were differences from the original one and these copies… And they were all exactly as I remembered them. Cocohi, the mischievous, with wavy blue hair and wearing a frilly apron over her school uniform. She was also wearing her glasses, which alone, made my face burn, and my heart feel like it was gonna pop.

Next, I saw Coconi the silent. She still had her gentle smile, soft hair, and effortless air of grace. She gave me a small wave in greeting, causing me to break out in a goofy grin myself.

Next to her was Coco-chan, who like Coconi, also seemed to have a permanent smile, but where the silent girl's one was serene, Coco-chan's was full of excitement. She was still wearing a lavender kimono and I could almost feel her energy radiating off of her, as if she wanted to drag me along to show me all the gears, which we could easily spend an eternity looking at together.

The fourth one… I frowned at for a second. It was definitely Cocona, but it looked oddly faded, and was nearly invisible against the background, as if it were a ghost. _I've never seen this one before…_ It took me a second to think about it, before I remembered there was one Cocona I only ever heard, and didn't see with my own eyes, because they were closed the whole time we spoke. Heck, the moment I opened them, she was gone. I… never actually gave that one a name. She was 'Nameless'.

The final one had long, tangle of wild blue hair, and huge eyes which took up so much her face, I couldn't be sure for a second that she had a nose. Said eyes lit up the moment they saw me, and she threw herself at me, pulling me into a hug that only Papika could rival. A mix of two of my favourite people on the planet: Cocoka. My face went bright red at the big show of affection, but unlike the last time I met her, I wanted to return the gesture, instead of shoving her off. _I love this girl. _My face broke into a smile, and I wanted to close my eyes, cuddle up to her, and just live in this moment forever.

…Well, I felt that bliss for a second at least, before guilt started to creep in, and I remembered why I was here in the first place. _I love both of the girls this person represents… I'm meant to be here to rescue them, not get lost in this one's warmth… _It was hard to put a hand on her shoulder and push her away from me, and even harder to try and dismiss the confused hurt on her face.

"Well, I don't know about you, but I'm seeing a pattern here. I think it's pretty clear what you want… or should I say _who _you want?" Yamika said, taking a few steps closer, leaning forward with a smug smile. My body felt hot, and was coursing with burning anger. With speed I didn't quite knew I had; I'd launched a kick right at Yamika's face. She caught it easily in one hand. "My, my, even after all this time, you're still uncomfortable admitting it aren't you?"

I yanked my foot out of her grasp, and tried to slam another kick into her with my other leg. Yamika hopped backwards out of the way of that one. "Shut it!" I roared at her "Tell me what you've done with Cocona! Where is she?!"

"You still want her all for yourself, when you have these lovely girls you can choose, or even the one you came here with? My, you're awfully self-centred. Not even taking other's feelings into consideration."

I knew Yamika was trying to irritate me on purpose, but _damn, _that last taunt made any rational sense I had fly out the window. I charged Yamika, holding my arms out wide, so I could grab her in a tackle. In response to that one, she smirked, and hopped upwards, tapped her foot against my head, and jumped over me. I twisted around, panting in frustration and anger, having missed, _again._

"Not thinking straight, are you?" Yamika said behind me, chuckling. "You're awfully fun to play with, Yayaka."

That time I didn't bother with a physical assault, and just spun around and fired my grappling wires at her. No escape this time, she stayed in place, but she was still smirking at me. "What's so funny?" I growled, grabbing her shoulders and getting close up in her face.

"That you think _I'm _the one that's locked Cocona away and tricked you into coming here."

I was barely under control of myself. If my hands were any stronger, they would have crushed Yamika's shoulders with how tightly I was gripping them… But then what she'd said sunk in. One word in particular stuck out to me: "Tricked?"

"Yes. _Tricked._ For someone who overthinks everything, you really miss the obvious, don't you?

"What do you mean?"

"You've been using technology to guide you the whole time here. Technology that I, as your shadow, shouldn't know how to tamper with, because Asclepius never allowed you, and therefore me, to learn how to use their technology…

"But I'm not the only person with a shadow in Pure Illusion. You're not the only one with thoughts and wishes, that's been tempted by another power in this dimension…

"I would have thought you'd made the connection a long time ago. After all, the thing you've been chasing? It's _red._"

I was about to scream in her face, to give my more information than just 'it's red'… But I looked into Yamika's red eyes that were starting to remind me of someone I knew… I turned to face the other red-eyed girl. The one with the red-striped body armour, who'd been there with me the whole time, and was staring down at the gears in the ground. A yellow gear was racing after a blue one, ignoring every other colour it passed. Purple, white and cyan cogs whirled underneath, shifting and changing with oranges and greens… The yellow and blue ignored them. The blue met a pink one, and they danced together, leaving the yellow one behind… But deep under all of that, past the thousands of shades, colours and tones, was a monstrously huge red gear. Hidden away, but ticking everything along, just like everything else.

My body suddenly felt very weak. My hands slipped off Yamika's shoulders, and my legs nearly crumpled to the ground. "It's red…" I echoed. _Cocona was attacked by a shadow…_ I_ would never hurt her, or hunt her down like that…But _Yuyu_ was the one who told Cocona the truth about me. She's the one that had that sadistic smile after trying to ruin that… _I could only look at Yuyu in disbelief. _I was tricked… How can I have been so damn thick? _That question would haunt me for a while... But not as much as the one that ended up leaving my lips. "…Yuyu… Why?"

* * *

_Authors note: Sorry about such the long wait with this one. First my memory stick which had my fic on it decided to corrupt itself, so I lost my full 170k+ word document with this, and the extra 30-40k words of notes, _and_ the original version of this chapter (_AND_ my document that had all the stray scenes that didn't make it into the arcade chapter, so those are lost forever too, which sucks). All that happening was really off-putting and I was hesitant to get writing again straight away because I didn't want to risk losing it again after that. Annoyingly said notes also contained a few ideas and notes for future chapters too. I know for certain one or two events that I definitely want to happen, but the others? I'll have to just try and remember. I know I spoke to someone on Reddit and they gave me an idea for a scene with Salt, but my notes for that were lost too. I might need to re-read that conversation… The moral of this story: Always back up your work in multiple places!_

_I feel this chapter… is a little messy, or at least it didn't want to cooperate with me at first. Doesn't help I've been getting a lot of headaches lately either. This was the sixth or seventh idea I had, and the only one I was really able to work with. Although there were a couple scenes I liked before and scrapped, I think overall one is more what I was aiming for in the first place with the chapter, including a Certain Thing being revealed (which some of you may have guessed long ago was going to happen. I have no idea if I kept that hidden well enough, or made it too obvious. I'm keeping this note vague on purpose just in case someone happens to scroll down and catch sight of it, so they don't get spoiled about the Certain Thing), but yes. I'm not sure how many chapters there'll be after this. I feel one of them will be an epilogue or something at least. _


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